Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems, 1991-1995 [Hardcover]

Hayden Carruth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

Powerful new poems by one of North America's premier poets.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Adrienne Rich has called Hayden Carruth "a part of our country's poetic treasure," and his other admirers include Galway Kinnell and Wendell Berry. A poet's poet, Carruth spins simple lines full of possible meanings, lines that stick in the reader's mind a long time. In "Particularity," for instance, Carruth writes of "this invisible / hereness where I am . . . the center / of mystery." Juxtaposing the mysterious with the tangible, Carruth is writing better than ever. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Carruth's latest collection revolves around a handful of familiar themes, all of which mingle and reconfigure throughout the poet's bittersweet, sometimes celebratory, occasionally rueful verse. Meditations on aging and love, nostalgia and guilt, contemporary politics and ancient history filter through much of this generally moving, uneven collection. Carruth's voice, always highly personal, is at its best when it mixes colloquial diction with an elegiac lyricism, as in his meditation on family history, "Flying into St. Louis": "For sixty-five years/ I've blamed my mother and father,/ I've climbed their trees and lopped off/ their branches, I've held/ their words in my mind like cudgels." At other times, however, the colloquial takes over and Carruth's verse becomes almost flat, as in "The Chain": "but I am a poet and you are too and so are all people/ except the monsters of this world/ out there planting/ mines in the mud and snow...." Despite its lesser offerings, the collection amply illustrates the openness and honesty with which Carruth addresses the world, the mixed compassion and outrage with which he responds to it and his continued productivity through a long, distinguished career.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 140 pages
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press; First Edition edition (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556591098
• ISBN-13: 978-1556591099
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,024,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carruth's poems penetrate deep beneath the surface, July 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems, 1991-1995 (Paperback)

Do yourself a favor and pick up SCRAMBLED EGGS & WHISKEY -- and follow Hayden Carruth on a journey that masterfully and humbly moves from the most troubling, trying scenes from life to the most redeeming to the everyday and a whole, whole lot in between. Rhythmic, with obvious jazz sensibilities -- and with so much truth -- these poems get to the heart of the matter in ways that make you nod in agreement, laugh out loud or pause in grieving silence or certain solidarity. I am glad this is the book that introduced me to the huge body of Mr. Carruth's work.

5.0 out of 5 stars Poems with great range, October 28, 2008

By 

Eric Maroney (Trumansburg, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems, 1991-1995 (Paperback)

From the title of Carruth's Collection, Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey, the reader expects a Bukowskiesque collection of poems, but in actuality Carruth's work has great dexterity and range of emotion, is quite supple in its expressive quality, and has the capacity to do a lot of heavy, emotional lifting in a confined space. In this collection, three major themes are explored: Carruth's coming death, his marriage to a much younger woman, (and her fate after he is gone) and the cancer of his adult daughter. Carruth weaves these themes and others into a series of poems which, although outwardly simple in terms of language and style, really penetrate the mysteries of life and death. Of course, death is the main character here, but Carruth is rounded enough in his view to see redemption everywhere, especially in death's nemesis, love.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey, November 24, 2008

By 

Vanessa B. Stevens (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems, 1991-1995 (Paperback)

I liked less than half of the poems, but the poems that I liked were very good. I am glad that I have the book. I will try another book by him.