Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unremitting genius!, September 1, 2009
This review is from: Bluets (Paperback)
I was excited about this book since reading an excerpt in The Hat. I read that poem 2x and went online and ordered it, knowing only it would come in the fall, and it did. I read the entire thing today sometimes skipping excitedly along at a pace maybe a bit too swift to really be taking it all in, but i was excited and it made me hungry for the next pages wit and frankness and it's the sort of work that just makes you hungry for more. You want to know all of it right now. I laid the book down for a minute to finish tending to what I had in the oven and my boyf. picked it up and started reading different parts aloud, loving it, laughing, we discussed the "depression is not like a fire" bit. I am so tremendously stoked this book exists, that it scratches the poetry itch I have for something lyrical and smart and feminist and libidinous and real and very alive. It is revivifying and truly great work. Perfect present for the cool woman in your life. Or the uncool woman in your life. Both. Either. All.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bluets, October 3, 2010
This review is from: Bluets (Paperback)
Nelson's book is rife with deep honesty, sensible confession, dark(-ish) humor, and enough sadness to tear viscera asunder. Nelson confesses she wanted to compose a book that would be a complete, comprehensive encyclopedic index of blue. What the reader gets is a book about compassion, mourning, hope, happiness, sex, and, as one might expect, one blue coat. What the reader gets is Bluets - nothing like any other book out there. Beautifully written, compelling, believable, deeply felt.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential reading, September 17, 2011
This review is from: Bluets (Paperback)
This is a brilliant little book that does its best to defy classification. Part of it is memoir, looking back on an ended relationship while living in the emotional aftermath of it. What's interesting is how this is explored in tandem with a philosophical investigation of the color blue, and it is this exploration that dominates the 240 numbered section of the book. More specifically, it is about Maggie Nelson's love of the color, and how that love informs her understanding of other forms of love. I'm realizing as I write this that the book may be beyond my explanation. I think I'll let it speak for itself in a few select quotes, ending my own thoughts here by saying that you should read Bluets, probably twice.
"It is, perhaps, my way of making my life feel "in progress" rather than a sleeve of ash falling off a lit cigarette."
"And it must also be admitted that hitting the wall or wandering off in the wrong direction or tearing off the blindfold is as much a part of the game as is pinning the tail on the donkey."
"And if 'saturation' means that one simply could not absorb or contain one single drop more, why does 'saturation' not bring with it a connotation of satisfaction, either in concept, or in experience?"
"But a bouquet is no homage to the bush."
"Imagine someone saying, "our fundamental situation is joyful." Now imagine believing it."
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