{"product_id":"9781556592324","title":"Part of the Bargain","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePart of the Bargain\u003c\/i\u003e , winner of the Hayden Carruth Award and selected from nearly 1,000 entries, is both a cabinet of curiosities and a sweep of philosophical idylls. Hightower’s poems range in style and subject, with soliloquies, laments, eccentric ponderings, and contemplations of appetite and art.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eDoor to the Terrace\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003eYou withdraw from me like a match\u003cbr\u003e From a final cigarette and dance every\u003cbr\u003e Abandonment. The strains of music\u003cbr\u003e That accompany you float away with you.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book’s epigraph evokes a Faustian contract, which is echoed in the tensions between urban and rural, light and dark, moral and amoral action. Hightower’s influences—Sappho, Virgil, Blake, and Wilde—make their presence known as he reflects upon life in urban America after growing up in rural Texas, about coming of age as a gay man, about art and artists, poetry and painting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eSpending the Night\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003eNow, in another part of the country,\u003cbr\u003e I hear it called “staying over.”\u003cbr\u003e Back then, a couple of years was a gaping difference.\u003cbr\u003e The ornately carved door covering the strings of an upright melded into the headboard of the bed . . .\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003ePart of the Bargain\u003c\/i\u003e also explores the imperceptible reconciliations that one makes as an individual, a part of a community, and as a conscientious heir to a culture. Valences of sexuality, nationality, literality all swirl together and perform a balancing act as the poet aspires to pull back the curtain of “the ineffable pageantry” of our multilayered lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eScott Hightower\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of two books of poems, \u003ci\u003eTin Can Tourist\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNatural Trouble\u003c\/i\u003e . His writings have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including \u003ci\u003eSalmagundi\u003c\/i\u003e , \u003ci\u003eThe Yale Review\u003c\/i\u003e , and \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/i\u003e . He teaches at Fordham University and New York University and is a contributing editor to \u003ci\u003eThe Journal\u003c\/i\u003e . He lives in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Copper Canyon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47040286490864,"sku":"9781556592324","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781556592324_p0.jpg?v=1763754261","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781556592324","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}