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Bluets

AS SEEN ON BBC2’S BETWEEN THE COVERS
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( 55,650 ratings, 7,879 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Bluets by Maggie Nelson is an intimate exploration of a personal obsession with the colour blue. Blending memoir and philosophical musings, the book delves into themes of love, loss, and longing, as it intertwines personal anecdotes with cultural and historical reflections on the colour itself. Nelson's poetic prose offers a thoughtful meditation on how blue underscores the nuances of human experience.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate poetic reflections and meditative essays. It combines autobiography and philosophical exploration to delve into the themes of love, loss, and colour, particularly blue. With its lyrical prose and introspective depth, it offers a unique blend of personal narrative and theoretical musings.

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A raw, cerebral work devoted to the inextricability of pleasure and pain, and to the question of what role, if any, aesthetic beauty can play in times of great heartache or grief.

Maggie Nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation - Olivia Laing

A Guardian Book of the Year

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Bluets is a Guardian Book of the Year and was featured on BBC2's Between the Covers.

"Maggie Nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation." - Olivia Laing

Bluets winds its way through themes of depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday, Yves Klein, Leonard Cohen, and Andy Warhol. While its narrator sets out to construct a sort of 'pillow book' about her lifelong obsession with the colour blue, she ends up facing both the painful end of an affair and the grievous injury of a dear friend.

The combination produces a raw, cerebral work devoted to the inextricability of pleasure and pain, and to the question of what role, if any, aesthetic beauty can play in times of great heartache or grief.

Much like Roland Barthes's A Lover's Discourse, Bluets has passed between lovers in the ecstasy of new love, and been pressed into the hands of the heartbroken. Visceral, learned, and acutely lucid, Bluets is a slim feat of literary innovation and grace, never before published in the UK.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Bluets by Maggie Nelson receives high praise for its thought-provoking and lyrical exploration of the colour blue and personal reflection. Critics like Olivia Laing and Karl Ove Knausgaard commend Nelson’s sharp intellect and the profound impact of her writing. Anne Enright describes the book as impactful and deeply resonant, while Time Out praises it as an artistic and intelligent meditation. Nelson’s work is noted for its adventurous and authentic narrative style by Brick.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781911214526

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 01 June 2017

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Jonathan Cape Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 206.0mm

Weight: 236g

Pages: 112

About the Author

Maggie Nelson is the author of several books of poetry and prose, including the New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Argonauts, and most recently in the UK, Bluets. She teaches at University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.

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