{"product_id":"9781452942766","title":"The Music of Failure","description":"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The ground bass is failure; America is the key signature; Pauline Bardal is the lyrical tune that sings at the center; Minneota, Minnesota, is the staff on which the tunes are written.\u003cem\u003e” \u003c\/em\u003eSo begins the masterful title piece from Bill Holm’s first book of essays, \u003cem\u003eThe Music of Failure\u003c\/em\u003e. This collection introduced to many the singular vision and voice of literary giant Bill Holm, a writer who had traveled well and widely but came back to his hometown of Minneota—the town of his immigrant Icelandic ancestors—as, in his words, “for all practical purposes a failure.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat emerges from these pages, and from Holm’s cherished writings over the next two and a half decades, is anything but failure. From his ruminations on life in Minneota, family history, and the “horizontal grandeur” of the Midwestern prairie to a poetry-reading tour of Minnesota nursing homes and an account of a naked man eating lilacs out of his garden, \u003cem\u003eThe Music of Failure\u003c\/em\u003e is a lyrical and surprising compilation that finds Holm mining the stories and places that captivated him and continue to enthrall his many readers. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis 25th anniversary edition includes poignant portraits of Holm and the history of \u003cem\u003eThe Music of Failure\u003c\/em\u003e by Jim Heynen and David Pichaske, along with an essay Holm requested be added to this new edition, “Is Minnesota in America Yet?” With beautiful black-and-white photographs by Tom Guttormsson, \u003cem\u003eThe Music of Failure\u003c\/em\u003e is Bill Holm at both his early and quintessential best, an inimitable and much-missed writer who illuminates our private and common lives through both our quiet victories and our sublime failures.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Minnesota Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47134875386096,"sku":"9781452942766","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781452942766_p0.jpg?v=1763848268","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781452942766","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}