Arrangements in blue : notes on loving and living alone

Arrangements in blue Notes on loving and living alone

Amy Key

Book - 2023

"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 th...e 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.

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BIOGRAPHY/Key, Amy
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Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor BIOGRAPHY/Key, Amy Due Aug 11, 2024
Subjects
Key, Amy.
Poets, English > Biography.
Single women > Great Britain > Biography.
Autobiographies.
Genres
Autobiographies
Published
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation 2023.
Language
English
Main Author
Amy Key (author)
Edition
First American edition
Physical Description
223 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781324091738
  • Love / looking for something, what can it he
  • Home / the bed's too big, the frying pan's too wide
  • Child / child with a child, pretending
  • Flowers / clean white linen and my fancy French cologne
  • Blue / you know I've been to sea before
  • Strangers / will you take me as I am?
  • Crazy / can't numb you out of my mind
  • Lost / I wish I had a river
  • Soul / part of you pours out of me
  • Dreamers / all good dreamers pass this way
  • Acknowledgements
Review by Booklist Review

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.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

British poet and essayist Key (Isn't Forever) takes an intimate, idiosyncratic look at single life in her evocative first memoir. Initially spurred by Joni Mitchell's 1971 album Blue to examine her romantic relationships, Key ended up using the record as a lens through which to examine "so many shades of life." Lyrics in "My Old Man" about big beds and frying pans prod her to cultivate peace while living alone. At 37, she felt an urgent need to have a baby and considered how and whether to become a mother by turning over Mitchell's wrenching "Little Green," which the musician wrote about a previously undisclosed pregnancy. Key describes how struggles with loneliness and singledom can give people "the power to make us the version of ourselves we long for," and how she eventually found liberation in her solitude by way of Mitchell's musings. Filled with lyrical turns of phrase, this insightful take on living solo will appeal to poets, dreamers, and anyone marching to the beat of their own drum. It's a lush and moving memoir. (May)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A collection of introspective essays about singleness, organized by themes from Joni Mitchell's Blue. Mitchell's iconic album came out in 1971, seven years before Key was born; when Key discovered it as a teen, it became her guide to life and love. One night when she was 14, "Blue ignited my desire and ambition for romantic love, my idea of how I would press my heart against the world. What appealed, I think, was the way it described the complexities of love. It was the best representation of love that seemed truthful: love as best and worst, joy and sorrow." The author, now in her mid-40s, has not had a boyfriend in more than two decades. Key, a poet and essayist, excavates this predicament in 10 essays named for bits of Mitchell's songs--Chapter 1: "Love / looking for something, what can it be"; Chapter 2: "Home / the bed's too big, the frying pan's too wide"--assiduously interrogating her emotions in a manner similar to a session with a therapist. Though some of Key's issues are relatable ("I never feel uglier than when I see myself in a hairdresser's mirror"), many are tedious and excruciating. The author writes about how she "used to identify myself as some kind of patron saint of unrequited love," and she repeatedly acknowledges that her obsession with her predicament makes her even less desirable. However, she has also rejected men who pursued her, and one of them died recently. The most unbearable part of the book details the weeks of his demise, a nightmare of alcohol-induced liver failure. Despite his suffering, Key maintains the focus on how it has affected her. The author writes well about Mitchell's music, but many readers will be uninterested in the dull story of her not becoming a single parent and the dreary scenes from her solo vacations. A gathering of uninspiring self-assessments. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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