Muddy Matterhorn
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Heather McHugh’s first book in a decade, Muddy Matterhorn, reclaims the mix of high and low that is her sensibility’s signature, in matters practical and philosophical, semantic and stylistic, mortal and transitory, amorous and political, hilarious and heartbreaking. With fierce attacks on technology and social structures, McHugh finds a way to enjoy and empathize with humanity on her own terms. Ever the outsider, McHugh combines a strong sense of self with a determination to love people and the worlds they build without losing her biting criticism or witty rejection of societal norms and expectations. She is both pragmatic and theorizing, esoteric and identifiable. The joy and anger in these poems join to form an empowered and impassioned declaration of self in a chaotic time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McHugh (Upgraded to Serious) demonstrates in her playful and perceptive ninth book a penchant for rhymes and puns as she questions technology and urges the reader to look closely at exactly what she might not want to see, including "the terror in the mirror." Over six sections, these poems, mostly one-to-two pages, though some as long as four, range from lighthearted and humorous (she urges the groom in "Epithalamium" "to keep pecker in pants") to epigrammatic ("Best be humble since we can't/ Tell much apart"). Twitter references, colloquial expression ("out with it" and "just come to grips"), and wordplay ("Get someone/ gunger-ho or gunga-dinner") rub up against Yeats, Shakespeare, a hard look at dying ("It's time to study/ What the dying do/ Who sob to laugh./ Who sing to weep"), and an even harder look at herself ("this muddy Matterhorn"). McHugh asks in "Long Enough": "Just to be freed from greed,/ just to be un-timeshared,/ must the tender ones forever// live in hunger or in coldest/ solitude?" The answer for McHugh seems to be "no" as she urges "curiosity instead of greed," offering readers an alternately whimsical and serious meditation on contemporary existence.
