Four Letter Word: Invented Correspondence from the Edge of Modern Romance (Hardcover)

by Joshua Knelman (Editor), Rosalind Porter (Editor)
Key Phrases: sexual headache, intermediate love, Four Letter Word, Geraldine Solomon, Fred Solomon (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"Let us begin this letter, this prelude to an encounter, formally, as a declaration, in the old-fashioned way: I love you. You do not know me (although you have seen me, smiled at me). I know you (although not so well as I would like. I want to be there when your eyes flutter open in the morning, and you see me, and you smile. Surely this would be paradise enough?). So I do declare myself to you now, with pen set to paper. I declare it again: I love you."

Is there any communication more potent than the love letter? Is there any charge greater than seeing those words on paper? The editors of this collection decided to ask some of the most important writers of our time to compose a fictional love letter - breathing new life into a forgotten custom, and affording words themselves the power of seduction that they richly deserve. The result is an iridescent picture of what love looks like in the twenty-first century: a collage of methods and moods. Each letter is radically different from the others, and all but one are published for the first time. A perfect gift, this book is also an ingenious showcase for many of our most beloved writers.

Love: a vague word for an emotion so ethereal it's not always possible to demonstrate. But there still exists an assumption that experiences - and, by extension, the emotions that experiences evoke - are more resonant when you write them down. And it's that faith, that belief that writing down these naked, shocking, inadvisable and probably destructive feelings make them worthwhile, that powers this collection, each piece of which is a testimony to the creative powers of our leading writers today, and every piece of which will move you.

About the Author
Joshua Knelman is an award-winning writer and editor and frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail newspaper. He is currently writing Hot Art, a nonfiction, investigative book focused on the international trade in stolen paintings, to be published by Free Press in 2009. He lives in Toronto.

Rosalind Porter is an editor at Granta and lives in London.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416569731
• ISBN-13: 978-1416569732
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #714,674 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars stunning, surprising!, February 8, 2008

By	Georgia C. (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

I was able to read some of the letters in advance a few months ago through the Times of London, and am so glad I bought the book too! The letters are definitely edgy and offbeat, but all are potent and worth rereading. The letter format is not at all gimmicky - I think each and every contributor rose to the challenge. Although some might be put off by the who's who of literature list of contributors, famous and not-yet-famous alike are all marvelous. Letters in this book have never been published before (except for one, I think) and the fact that it was an assignment makes the letters quite compelling.

I gave it as a gift to a close friend and she's been having a great time reading it too. I hope you will buy this either for yourself or as a gift - you definitely haven't seen a collection like this before.

CAVEAT: Letters are not mushy. If you're buying this for someone else, don't expect this to be full of declarations of the sweet kind of love. Some of it is, but a lot of it is also odd and depressing. (A lot of it is very funny, too.) It's all about love, but also about intensity and being a little crazy - goes with the territory. You're very lucky though if you know someone who would appreciate this and "get it."