Arrangements In Blue Notes On Loving And Living Alone Amy Key by Amy Key 9781324091738, 1324091738 instant download after payment.

"The poet Amy Key's 1st book might be the most hyped memoir of 2023 (or at least a close 2nd to Spare)... This raw, gorgeous, pulsing memoir is...the harbinger of a real talent." — Laura Hackett, Sunday Times

Amy Key—a writer "of rare & strange magic" (Guardian)—probes the art of living without romance in this soul-stirring debut.

When British poet Amy Key was growing up, she envisioned a life shaped by love—& 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 40s, 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 & unfulfilled desire—punctuated by sharp, discordant feelings of jealousy & regret—to the deep harmony of friendship, & the crescendos of sexual attraction & 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; & with the utmost tenderness, she parses out her decision to not have children with the eloquent “Little Green.”  
Mapping the evolution of her early conceptions of love through her adulthood, Key offers a tender & nakedly candid celebration of the many forms of intimacy that often go unnoticed.