The Brother’s Country
1989

This first collection, selected by Charles Wright for “The National Poetry” series, introduces a poet with a distinct voice and compelling subject matter: his brother’s traumatic 24-year life. In the title sequence, Andrews focuses on specific events: the birth, a blood clot, an angel’s visitation, etc., proving himself adept at conventional observation. In the final sequence, “A Language of Hemophilia,” Andrews takes Samuel Beckett and George Oppen as masters, applying language to break the constraints of life and death. While at times it becomes a mere play on words, the intensity of the subject is never far from the reader’s mind.

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