{"product_id":"9780807144718","title":"Blacksnake at the Family Reunion: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003eDavid Huddle's latest collection, Blacksnake at the Family Reunion, shares intimate and amusing stories as if told by a quirky, usually reticent, great uncle. In \"Boy Story,\" a teenage romantic meeting ends abruptly when the boy's sweetheart realizes they have parked near her grandmother's grave. The poem \"Aloft\" recalls a widowed mother's indignation after she receives a marriage proposal in a hot air balloon. Haunted by the words on his older sister's tombstone -- \"born\u0026amp;died... then \/ a single date \/ in November\" -- the speaker in one poem struggles to understand a tragic loss: \"The ampersand \/ tells the whole truth \/ and nothing but, \/ so help me God, \/ whose divine shrug \/ is expressed so \/ eloquently \/ by that grave mark.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBlacksnake at the Family Reunion continues Huddle's poetic inquiry into the power of early childhood and family to infuse adulthood with sadness and despair -- an inquiry conducted with profound empathy for the fragility of humankind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Louisiana State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47109783355632,"sku":"9780807144718","price":9.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780807144718_p0.jpg?v=1763737651","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780807144718","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}