Bluets
Ratings55
Average rating3.8
It's giving By Grand Central Station. Heavy on the Wittgenstein and Plato, but light on the narrative or thematic cohesion. Nelson makes the decision to restrict details of her lover to the type of sex they were having (for fear of displacing her memories with her writing, as with childhood photographs), but what results for me is a paradoxical combination of deep, powerful longing and nonchalance that I struggled to connect with.
At a job interview at a university, three men sitting across from me at a table. On my cv it says that I am currently working on a book about the color blue. I have been saying this for years without writing a word. It is, perhaps, my way of making my life feel “in progress” rather than a sleeve of ash falling off a lit cigarette. One of the men asks, Why blue? People ask me this question often. I never know how to respond. We don't get to choose what or whom we love, I want to say. We just don't get to choose.
One sentence synopsis... A series of loosely connected pieces of prose examining love and the loss of a relationship through observations about the colour blue.
Read it if you like... when books are described as ‘lyrical' and ‘poetic'.
Further reading... ‘Too Much and Not the Mood', Ocean Vuong, or Mary Gaitskill.
read this about two years ago and thought it was an incoherent mess. but after seeing continued praise for it and thinking about how my mindset and opinions have changed over the hundred-plus books i've read since then, i decided it was time for a revisit. i can now comfortably say i right the first time.
I like when the writing style is symbolic and sounds like streams of consciousness. This is why I enjoyed Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and Bluets. It feels like I'm reading a diary, as if I'm connected deeper to the protagonist. Bluets is meant to be poetry and it's funny because it also reads like a thesis about the color blue. The author included so many references which are interesting to me. I especially like when they relate blue to their friend in the hospital. The ending was just okay for me but hoped it was a bit better.
3.5
Very interesting to read, I liked the writing and the way Nelson expresses her thoughts.
I really don't understand the positive views of this books- it had a few good ideas and shorts, and I give it a star for that, but I overall found it to be glorifying depression, obsession, and wallowing, and thought it often said a whole lot of nothing in many words.
This is the only book I've ever re-read in my entire life. There's a lot that went over my head in 2019 and there's definitely stuff I can't grasp even now. But I think this is one I'll revisit all throughout my life and find gems as I grow. Probably my favorite book of all time. So many different moments in time are weaved together. It feels so stream-of-consciousness but expertly crafted at the same time. It's honest and its weird and sporadic and inquisitive and wise. I can see how people might be off-put by some of these things, but I think its chaos is part of its charm. Everything is held together by a very thin thread (blue!). I think this blend of poetry and prose (and research ofc) is Maggie Nelson's sweet spot and I wish she'd just keep writing shit like this. I just want more. <3
Disappointing read right after “The Argonauts.” Makes me like her writing less.
Tired and obtuse in that breakup way. I probably would have loved it at the right time in my life. As it is? Meh.