A Clown at Midnight

National Book Award finalist Andrew Hudgins offers a meditation on humor with a refreshing poignancy and cutting wit A Mariner Paperback Original "One of the few poets of the American South who can be both solemn and sidesplitting in a single poem" ( Publishers Weekly), Andrew Hudgins fittingly tackles humor in this collection of new poems. A Clown at Midnight touches on love and nature, but at its core, it's about the consolations and terrors, delights and discomforts of laughter, taking its title from the Lon Chaney quote, "The essence of true horror is a clown at midnight." Skillfully probing paradoxes, Hudgins conjures the titular clown: "Down these mean streets a bad joke walks alone/bruised head held low, chin tucked in tight, eyes down /defiant. He laughs and it turns to a moan." He gives us utter honesty and accessible verse, exploring moments both uncomfortable and satirical while probing the impulse to confront life's most demanding trials with laughter.