THE BOOK OF LOVE: Improvisations on a Crazy Little Thing

New
Paperback
2016
$15.74

The beloved New York Times bestselling author Making Toast and Kayak Morning returns with a powerful meditation on a universal subject: love.
In The Book of Love, Roger Rosenblatt explores love in all its moods and variations-romantic love, courtship, battle, mystery, marriage, heartbreak, fury, confusion, melancholy, delirium, ecstasy; love of family, of friends; love of home, of country, of work, of writing, of solitude, of art; love of nature; love of life itself.
Rosenblatt is on a quest to illuminate this elusive and essential emotion, to define this thing called love. Cleverly using lines from love songs to create a flowing ballad-as infectious and engaging as a jazz riff-he intersperses fictional vignettes that capture lovers in different situations, ages, and temperaments along with notes addressed to you, his wife of fifty years. The story I have to tell is of you. Of others, too. Other people, other things. But mainly of you. It begins and ends with you. It always comes back to you.
Lively yet profound, poignant yet joyous, The Book of Love is a triumph of intellect and imagination: a personal discourse on love that is both novel and timeless.

Synopsis

The beloved New York Times bestselling author Making Toast and Kayak Morning returns with a powerful meditation on a universal subject: love.

In The Book of Love, Roger Rosenblatt explores love in all its moods and variations-romantic love, courtship, battle, mystery, marriage, heartbreak, fury, confusion, melancholy, delirium, ecstasy; love of family, of friends; love of home, of country, of work, of writing, of solitude, of art; love of nature; love of life itself.

Rosenblatt is on a quest to illuminate this elusive and essential emotion, to define this thing called love. Cleverly using lines from love songs to create a flowing ballad-as infectious and engaging as a jazz riff-he intersperses fictional vignettes that capture lovers in different situations, ages, and temperaments along with notes addressed to you, his wife of fifty years. The story I have to tell is of you. Of others, too. Other people, other things. But mainly of you. It begins and ends with you. It always comes back to you.

Lively yet profound, poignant yet joyous, The Book of Love is a triumph of intellect and imagination: a personal discourse on love that is both novel and timeless.

$15.74

Quantity

20 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 25 Feb 2016
ISBN 10: 0062349430
ISBN 13: 9780062349439

Media Reviews

While plenty of writers have tried their hand at capturing the improvisational brilliance of jazz, with varying degrees of success, Rosenblatt's wanderings with the subject of love are like Coltrane at the Village Vanguard. When you hear it, you know. -- Kirkus Reviews
[This book] could probably be read in one sitting, but it's too clever, and it dashes here and there, and for many such reasons, it's a book to savor. Moreover, it can be opened and read at nearly any point. For Rosenblatt--wittily, urbanely, wholeheartedly--is in love... -- Booklist
Forget the flowers and candy. This year's ultimate Valentine's Day treat is Roger Rosenblatt's impressionistic riff on what makes the heart beat faster. -- O, the Oprah Magazine
Who wrote The Book of Love? This month, it's Roger Rosenblatt; by interspersing romantic verses with personal and fictional vignettes, he composes a symphony of amore. -- Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair
Interweaving short reflections with notes to his wife of 50 years, Rosenblatt crafts a colorful riff on love in all its forms. -- Good Housekeeping
Just in time for Valentine's Day, Rosenblatt (The Boy Detective) uses lines from love songs to riff on everybody's favorite subject. -- USA Today, New and Noteworthy-Lead Pick
Brimming with lyrical musings and offering uniquely experiential perspectives, THE BOOK OF LOVE is delightfully inventive, imaginative and deep. -- Bookreporter.com
By opening up his own heart and mind, Rosenblatt creates a work so diverse and comprehensive that it feels more like a shared dream than merely an intricately written reflection of one man's life and loves. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Author Bio

Roger Rosenblatt is the author of six off-Broadway plays and eighteen books, including Lapham Rising, Making Toast, Kayak Morning and The Boy Detective. He is the recipient of the 2015 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement.