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Arrangements in blue : notes on loving and living alone / Amy Key.

Key, Amy, (author.).

Available copies

  • 0 of 1 copy available at LARL/NWRL Consortium.
  • 0 of 1 copy available at Lake Agassiz Regional Library. (Show preferred library)

Current holds

0 current holds with 1 total copy.

Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Detroit Lakes Public Library 921 KEY (Text) 33500013793641 New Checked out 06/21/2023

Record details

  • ISBN: 1324091738
  • ISBN: 9781324091738
  • Physical Description: 223 pages ; 22 cm
  • Edition: First American edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2023.

Content descriptions

Summary, etc.:
"When British poet Amy Key was growing up, she envisioned a life shaped by love--and Joni Mitchell's album Blue was her inspiration. 'Blue became part of my language of intimacy,' she writes, recalling the dozens of times she played the record as a teen, 'an intimacy of disclosure, vulnerability, unadorned feeling that I thought I'd eventually share with a romantic other.' As the years ticked by, she held on to this very specific idea of romance like a bottle of wine saved for a special occasion. But what happens when the romance we are all told will give life meaning never presents itself? Now single in her forties, Key explores the sweeping scales of romantic feeling as she has encountered them, using the album Blue as an expressive anchor: from the low notes of loss and unfulfilled desire--punctuated by sharp, discordant feelings of jealousy and regret--to the deep harmony of friendship, and the crescendos of sexual attraction and self-realization. Finding solace in Mitchell's songs, Key plumbs Blue's track list for themes that resonate with her heart's seasons. Listening to the song 'California,' she explores the mixed emotions that come with traveling alone in a world built for couples; she juxtaposes the lonely lyrics of 'My Old Man' with the pleasurable art of curating a perfect apartment for one; and with the utmost tenderness, she parses out her decision to not have children with the eloquent 'Little Green'"--Provided by publisher.
Reviews

  • Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2023 April #1
    When, as a young teen, poet Key first heard Joni Mitchell's album Blue, it ignited my desire and ambition for romantic love, my idea of how I would press my heart against the world. In ten chapters, each riffing on a lyric or impression from different tracks of that album, Key contemplates her life, nearing her midforties, without the romantic love Blue seemed to promise. The ouroboros of self-love being the predictor of romantic love, which we are made to feel less lovable without, finds a home in Carey. Key wishes she had a you to sing A Case of You to, but in the end, Blue itself, Key writes, is the case of wine I can drink and still remain standing. Her holistic approach also encompasses a fevered wish for a child and the grief of losing a dear friend. Straddling positivity and cynicism, pride and despair, Key's artful inquiry asks us to question our focus on romantic love and consider all that remains outside of it and all that could flourish there, if we let it. Copyright 2023 Booklist Reviews.

Subject: Key, Amy.
Poets, English > Biography.
Single women > Great Britain > Biography.
Genre: Autobiographies.

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