NEVER-ENDING PA [Paperback]

Andrew Hudgins (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The subjects of Hudgins's third collection vary widely, including the death of Christ, the demise of a love affair in a cellar, and compost. Hudgins weaves together poems on four themes: nature, religion, his family, and, of course, that old standby, love. The poems lock together and form a sort of jigsaw abstract of life. Hudgins's main strength is his ability to cut to the core of a subject with a deep emotional intensity, then circle around and attack it from another angle, as in "Praying Drunk," and "Heat Lightining in a Time of Drought." The poems are blessed with startling imagery: deer are "enormous rats on stilts;" sirens are "lullabies/ they sound like making love." In one "prayer" poem, Hudgins speaks in slang to God; he tells God he hears from an old girlfriend, then asks, "Do you?" It's surprisingly effective. In one poem he writes with humor, although as he says, "This is my favorite sin, despair." As Hudgins spins his tales, you want to follow him into "the starting over. And then the never-ending." Recommended.
- Doris Lynch, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Andrew Hudgins was born in Texas, raised mainly in Alabama, and educated all across the Uninted States. Today, he teaches at the University of Cincinnati, where he lives with his wife, the novelist Erin McGraw.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (April 13, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395585694
• ISBN-13: 978-0395585696
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,245,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Hudgins is the author of seven books of poems, including SAINTS AND STRANGERS, THE GLASS HAMMER, and ECSTATIC IN THE POISON. A finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, he is a recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships as well as the Harper Lee Award. He currently teaches in the Department of English at Ohio State University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant., July 18, 2003

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Never-Ending (Hardcover)

Andrew Hudgins, The Never-Ending (Houghton Mifflin, 1991)

Few people who read Andrew Hudgins' poem "Praying Drunk" are likely to forget it any time soon.

"....I want a lot of money and a woman.
And, also, I want vanishing cream. You know,
a character like Popeye rubs it on
and disappears. Although you see right through him,
he's there. He chuckles, stumbles into things,
and smoke that's clearly visible escapes
from his invisible pipe. It makes me think,
sometimes, of you...."

Hudgins is one of those rarest of birds, a poet who flaunts the rules not because he doesn't know what they are, or because he feels rules are "beneath" poetry (as so many thousands of people who write bad poetry do), but because he's actually writing stuff whose form, structure, and substance demand a certain amount of rule-breaking. He throws rhyming couplets into a free-verse poem, comes up with the occasional horrid line break (as in the third line of the quote above), throws every grammar rulebook to the wind, and is one of those very few whose words sound as good as they do because of the way he chose to write the poems in this book. Every flaunted rule hints at hours, maybe days, of thought on whether the lines in question might sound better in some other form. In every case, it seems, the answer was no.

Hudgins, much lauded and yet little known, is one of modern America's finest poetic voices. The Never-Ending continued his recognition as such, becoming his third book in a row nominated for a major American prize (the National Book Award, this time); it was also his third book overall. That's a track record that's pretty hard to miss.

Unlike so many fine ones, Hudgins' books, most of them, are still in print. Give the man a try. You won't regret it. **** ½

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, March 28, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NEVER-ENDING PA (Paperback)

To understand God, siblings, breakups, and mescal worms, find this book, buy it, and read it over and over.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Asks tough questions of himself. Isn't afraid of answers., November 27, 2001

By 

The Hammer (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NEVER-ENDING PA (Paperback)

Hudgins is accessible. Kind of funny, like Billy Collins. Human in a way that reminds of William Stafford and Lucille Clifton. Manly as Hemmingway, but not as impressed with himself. A good-hearted loser like the rest of us. "Praying Drunk" is the highlight, as its title would suggest.