{"product_id":"the-hands-of-strangers","title":"The Hands of Strangers: Poems from the Nursing Home","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\" color=\"#000000\"\u003eJanice N. Harrington's debut collection, \u003cem\u003eEven the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone\u003c\/em\u003e, won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize Contest and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Now she returns with a tightly focused collection that never veers away from its subject matter: the inner-workings of a nursing home.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\" color=\"#000000\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Hands of Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e portrays the tensions and moments of grace between aged nursing home residents and their healthcare workers.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eWhat does it mean to be a nurses’ aide in a nursing home, the lowest of the low, the typically-female worker who provides physical care for the devalued bodies of the elderly? What is it to live one’s remaining life on a county ward as an indigent elder?\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe poems show women in motion: they lift bodies, push wheelchairs, give treatments, and\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eperform the myriad tasks of caretaking.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe poems show aides as anonymous figures laboring under routines, time clocks, and a distant medical hierarchy.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThey tell also tell the stories of how the nursing home industry reshapes lives, bodies, and identities of both aides and the aged.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\" color=\"#000000\"\u003eJanice N. Harrington's first job was working as a nurses’ aide while still in high school in the seventies.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eShe says, \"Like many of the 'girls' I worked with, I was young and inexperienced in a workplace that demanded empathy, skill, and compassion for the needs and stories of the elderly. I worked my way through college as a nurses’ aide.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI wrote \u003cem\u003eThe Hands of Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e because I cannot forget the 'girls' I worked with or the 'residents' under my care.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI haven’t forgotten what I saw, heard, felt, or learned. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\" color=\"#000000\"\u003eHuman stories hide behind the walls, the national statistics, and the isolations of institutionalized aging.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI wanted to share some of those stories.\"\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN: 9781934414545\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2011\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":8420140165,"sku":"9781934414545","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/THE_HANDS_OF_STRANGERS.jpg?v=1527683373","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/the-hands-of-strangers","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}