About the Book:”Within his deliberately narrowed range Mr. Shapiro has cultivated a new generosity of detail and insight. This is especially important in the longer poems here, narratives of considerable power. They may seem more like versified short stories than poems, but their skill and force are moving.”–J. D. McClatchy, New York Times Book Review “Happy Hour is one of the best collections I have recently read. Mr. Shapiro writes with apparently equal ease in free verse and more nearly traditional forms, and he brings his formidable technical skills to bear upon matters of great urgency: our need to love and be loved, and the often perverse ways in which we maintain our connections to those closest to us.”–Henry Taylor, Washington Times “This is a haunting, mature collection that should attract a larger audience for Shapiro’s fine poems.”–Thomas Swiss, Chicago Tribune