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Bluets Paperback – CLV, October 1, 2009

by Maggie Nelson (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,530 ratings
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Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color . . .

A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.

Maggie Nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press, 2007). She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    112 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Wave Books
  4. Publication date
    October 1, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.1 x 0.4 x 8.1 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1933517409
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1933517407
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Previous Work: "A genre buster with an engaging prose style, Nelson interweaves psychoanalysis, personal memoir and true-crime tidbits into a darkly intelligent page-turner." -Time Out New York "Very rarely does a book come along that combines such extraordinary lyricism and ethical precision with the sense that the author is writing for her very life ... Nelson refuses complacency and pushes further into the unknown." -Annie Dillard

About the Author

Maggie Nelson is the author of several books of poetry and nonfiction, including Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press, 2007). She has taught writing and literature at The New School, Wesleyan University, and Pratt Institute of Art, though currently teaches at CalArts.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wave Books; 2nd Edition (October 1, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1933517409
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1933517407
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.4 x 8.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,530 ratings

About the author

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Maggie Nelson

Maggie Nelson

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Maggie Nelson is the author of several acclaimed books in multiple genres. Her books of nonfiction include Like Love: Essays and Conversations (Graywolf Press, 2024), On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (Graywolf Press, 2021), The Argonauts (Graywolf Press, 2015), global best-seller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; a landmark work of cultural, art, and literary criticism titled The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (Norton, 2011), which was named a NY Times Notable Book of the Year; the cult classic Bluets (Wave Books, 2009), which was named by Bookforum one of the 10 best books of the past 20 years; a memoir about her family, media spectacle, and sexual violence titled The Red Parts (originally published by Free Press in 2007, reissued by Graywolf in 2016); and a critical study of painting and poetry titled Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa, 2007; winner, the Susanne M. Glassock Award for Interdisciplinary Scholarship). Her books of poetry include Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007), Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull, 2005; finalist, the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir), The Latest Winter (Hanging Loose Press, 2003), and Shiner (Hanging Loose, 2001). She has been the recipient of a Creative Capital Literature Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction, an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and an Andy Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant. In 2016 she received a MacArthur "genius" grant. She currently teaches at the University of Southern California.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
1,530 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A hug
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2024
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This book comforts me. Highly recommend. Perfect to throw in your bag for whenever you want to read it.
One person found this helpful
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E. Swope
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2023
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This book is art in words, like walking through a wonderful art gallery. It's beautiful, raw, clever, whimsical, sexy, and everything in between.
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1operalover
5.0 out of 5 stars Creative Well-Researched Brilliant and Moving Poem About Love Lost
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2024
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I read this book (poem) twice, each time becoming more impressed. It became clear to me that the protagonist's obsession with the color blue served as an escape for her deep depression about lost love. The actual mentions of love were relatively few, which made her loss seem even deeper. I did, of course, eventually search for the original "Bluets" painting, but could see no relationship between this "smudgy" painting and this beautiful poem. Maybe someone else can?
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Gabi
4.0 out of 5 stars Embracing Complexity
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2023
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Maggie Nelson's Bluets embodies true ambiguity. The combination of the lyrical and the essayistic within this book is truly remarkable and makes for an extremely compelling read. Nelson completely defamiliarizes the common associations with the color blue, opening up immense possibilities and honoring so many different meanings of the color at once. She searches for a deeper meaning throughout, providing insight into the human experience of love, pain, and so much more. The writing is intentional and well-crafted, moving toward a poetic feel at times. Thought-provoking and enjoyable, Nelson's Bluets feels like falling in an out of love over and over again with each turn of the page.
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Lorraine Berry
5.0 out of 5 stars The colour blue as a lens to view the human condition
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2015
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I love this book. It is nonfiction, and comprises a series of small, numbered writings. They're more similar to Nietzsche's aphorisms in size--that is, they can be a sentence or two, or fill a few pages--but they are affirming, profound, and provocative. What are they about? Ostensibly, the colour blue. The entire book comprises reflections on the colour blue--its symbolism, its place in the spectrum of light, its manifestations as moods and states of being, its place in literature and music.

The writing is brilliant. Maggie Nelson, whose most recent book, THE ARGONAUTS, is a tour de force, has such a fantastic style. Her writing evoked feelings in me as her writing placed a series of sensory experiences in my mind, each of which was evoked by what she was writing about.

This is a work of philosopy, of aesthetic theory, of cultural criticism, a meditation on what it means to be alive and human, all creatively told by writing about the colour blue. At first glance, it may sound like another form of navel gazing, but that would be a misreading of what's going on. This is a book about the human condition, one that Nelson writes about with style and aplomb.
24 people found this helpful
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Jessica Hopper
5.0 out of 5 stars Unremitting genius!
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2009
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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.
21 people found this helpful
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Kay bee
5.0 out of 5 stars Deep dive into blue
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2023
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Better than meditation, more informative than a podcast, or an altar,. A sensory symphony of blue. Read in one sitting or in small doses, and ten read it again.
3 people found this helpful
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Fiona
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2023
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If you love people talking in depth and looking for deeper meanings this is definitely for you.
2 people found this helpful
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Melissa
5.0 out of 5 stars Lo amo
Reviewed in Mexico on January 4, 2023
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Precioso libro que me acompaño en un duelo. Lo recomiendo millones 100000/10
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Magu
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful gift for my sis!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2024
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I haven’t read it yet but they’re doing a play in London and I’m watching it.
One person found this helpful
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karine
5.0 out of 5 stars Genuinely one of the best poetry books I’ve read
Reviewed in Canada on May 27, 2021
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I read this on Scribd and had to buy the book. The prose in here is so beautiful it reached into my chest and squeezed my literal heart. I’m now obsessed with colour-related poetry.
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Shagun
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!
Reviewed in India on December 22, 2023
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bluets is definitely one of my favorite books of all time and whenever someone asks me the coolest book to gift someone it is this!
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Sunshine
2.0 out of 5 stars Empty
Reviewed in France on January 15, 2020
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There is nothing to hold on to in this superficial book, written in a diary sort of way, with any odd thought about blue. It feels as though the author had a personal challenge of writing a book and that's that. If you are truly interested in colours, read the books by Michel Pastoureau.
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