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Arrangements in Blue
Arrangements in Blueelegantly honors the life lived completely by—and for—oneself. Inspired by Joni Mitchell’s seminal albumBlue, celebrated British poet Amy Key sets out to examine the volatile scales of romantic feeling as she has encountered them: 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 highs defined by sexual attraction and self-realization. Key celebrates the bliss of sleeping in an empty bed, the intimate energy required for cooking solo, and the transformative power of traveling alone—especially to the sea. Written with the exquisite finesse of a poet, this bold manual for navigating life alone provides an alternative perspective on a shared human experience so rarely explored.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published May 9, 2023
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19k people want to read
About the author
Amy Key
17books51followersAmy Key is a poet and writer based in London. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Luxe and Isn't Forever, which was a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice and a Book of the Year in the Guardian, New Statesman and The Times. Her poems have been widely published and anthologised, and her essays have appeared in At the Pond, Granta, the Poetry Review and elsewhere.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 709 reviews
June 28, 2023
I loved the concept of this book, a personal analysis of romantic attachment and its dearth for the author, a modern trope of the singleton life but which has a far longer history. It is intricately examined under her personal microscope.
At first I enjoyed her writing, reflections and unflinching analysis. However it is analysis that I found to be the problem for me. It felt like an endless, repetitive stream of consciousness, as if in the psychiatrist's chair. I think an essay format would have contained the insights more succinctly. Paralleling her life with Joni Mitchell's "Blue" felt an unnecessarily contrived peg for her waves of vulnerability to hang upon.
I think if I had read this as a younger woman, I would have lapped up the intensity but aged 60+ I kept trying immersion but was actually quite irritated. She has a rich seam of friendships and, despite one of them being tragic, this is how life is and for me, it was just too indulgent.
At first I enjoyed her writing, reflections and unflinching analysis. However it is analysis that I found to be the problem for me. It felt like an endless, repetitive stream of consciousness, as if in the psychiatrist's chair. I think an essay format would have contained the insights more succinctly. Paralleling her life with Joni Mitchell's "Blue" felt an unnecessarily contrived peg for her waves of vulnerability to hang upon.
I think if I had read this as a younger woman, I would have lapped up the intensity but aged 60+ I kept trying immersion but was actually quite irritated. She has a rich seam of friendships and, despite one of them being tragic, this is how life is and for me, it was just too indulgent.
March 22, 2024
Loved, loved, loved this one so much. It made me feel, and laugh, and cry, and hurt, and all the things. Rarely does a book hit me in so many ways all at once and remain in my mind long after reading. Thank you, Amy Key - I needed this one.
April 23, 2023
I listened to the audiobook of this which is read by the author herself and I very much enjoyed it.
It’s an extremely generous book � Key shares with the reader her own personal experiences as a woman who, while having an abundance of platonic and familial love in her life, has had a lack of romantic love. Rather than try to make it into some kind of parable about being happy with what you have or not needing a man, she acknowledges that she still feels a lack in her life and wants romantic love. That honesty is what makes this a really insightful read, and I think even if you are the kind of person who is always in a romantic relationship this book can go some way towards helping you understand why that might be and your own relationship with romantic love.
I think this book will do for single women what Sheila Heti’s motherhood did for those who are ambivalent about having children � in giving them a voice it creates a validating solidarity, and encourages those who read it to reevaluate their treatment/assumptions of the people in their lives who live alone.
I love the richness in the way Key perceives life, with a poet’s love of details � I especially enjoyed the writing about holidaying alone. Despite covering some very sad topics, it is still a joyful book with a lot of love in it. At times it made me unexpectedly snort with laughter.
Highly recommend.
It’s an extremely generous book � Key shares with the reader her own personal experiences as a woman who, while having an abundance of platonic and familial love in her life, has had a lack of romantic love. Rather than try to make it into some kind of parable about being happy with what you have or not needing a man, she acknowledges that she still feels a lack in her life and wants romantic love. That honesty is what makes this a really insightful read, and I think even if you are the kind of person who is always in a romantic relationship this book can go some way towards helping you understand why that might be and your own relationship with romantic love.
I think this book will do for single women what Sheila Heti’s motherhood did for those who are ambivalent about having children � in giving them a voice it creates a validating solidarity, and encourages those who read it to reevaluate their treatment/assumptions of the people in their lives who live alone.
I love the richness in the way Key perceives life, with a poet’s love of details � I especially enjoyed the writing about holidaying alone. Despite covering some very sad topics, it is still a joyful book with a lot of love in it. At times it made me unexpectedly snort with laughter.
Highly recommend.
July 12, 2023
At times thought provoking and touching, certainly courageous, though ultimately a little repetitive. By the last few chapters I was confused what conclusion she was trying to draw - she wants love but she doesn't, she loves her life yet she doesn't. I got the impression the author's understanding of romantic love was filled too heavily with received notions of pure bliss and infatuation.
April 14, 2023
“These are my own chords of inquiry. The dream songs I’ve written to Blue’s arrangements.� Amy Key’s debut memoir, Arrangements in Blue, is a book in many ways about Joni Mitchell’s most essential album, Blue � about how the album set up a kind of world-view for Key around the subject of romantic love. But this book is also so like that album � in its compassionate ability to comfort, its starkly evident gorgeousness, and its courageous, mutually liberating confessional tone; Kris Kristofferson famously told Mitchell to “save something for yourself�, but Blue endures because she would not listen. I am so grateful to Key for taking up the mantle. This personal story of a life lived in the absence of romantic love, lived by and for oneself, contains within it deep reflections of more universal concerns: there’s a compounding of loneliness (alone even in one’s aloneness), the shame of being perceived as unloveable because of it, the struggle of seeing oneself without another person to read us into being. Key discusses homebuilding and solo travels, family-rearing and financial constraints, all the (im)practicalities of living in a world built for and around couples; but also craft, the soul, the magnitude of platonic love from friendships and family, and the deeper costs of � and the joy to be found in � finding a way forward alone. The ten chapters serve as a kind of personal and literary track-by-track, using the ten songs from Joni’s album as lyrical lenses to look at intersecting ideas and life events. I have my own personal reasons for needing and loving a book like this, but I believe wholly in its power to be redemptive for those of us trying to embrace a life with its own hierarchy of love and meaning.
May 12, 2023
DEVASTATING I adore it I want to cry to Amy in pub bathrooms during a night out
May 9, 2023
if you're bitter about being single and feel a tiny violin should play because you don't have a partner, you'll love this.
if you want to celebrate the single life, if you open your arms to a partner but don't need one to function, and if you prefer books that don't leave you raging with anger - i'd avoid this.
if you want to celebrate the single life, if you open your arms to a partner but don't need one to function, and if you prefer books that don't leave you raging with anger - i'd avoid this.
May 31, 2024
This was a tough read on a lot of levels. I found it hard to focus on the book most of the time. I don't know if it was the level of self-pity portrayed or the way the topic of romantic love was discussed and, well, romanticized. This type of love was heralded above all others as the last piece of completeness in personhood. While I sympathize with those who have this deep desire for things they cannot make materialize (romantic partners, children, etc.), I found it hard to connect with someone so bound to societal "laws." The book is lovely in many ways too. The writing is lovely, the feelings that her imagery provokes are cozy, and the life she has created for herself, her inner child, and her future self is really beautiful. Most of the time, though, I just wanted to shake her and tell her to get over herself.
February 13, 2023
Arrangements in Blue is a lovely, lyrical rumination on the experiences of being a single woman in today's society, all set against the backdrop of Joni Mitchell's classic Blue album. You don't have to be single to relate to Amy Key's words and sentiments - she digs deep into the human heart and speaks eloquently for so many of us. That said, I felt such a kinship with her words, felt that she had peeked into my emotional makeup and laid out a map of its landscape for all to see, down to her love of the water and the sea.. Each essay in this collection is carefully arranged, building on and informing the other, creating a crescendo of longing and desire, heartache and heartful, beautifully capturing our need for connection, for intimacy, for love. Thank you NetGalley and W.W. Norton for allowing me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this gorgeous book. #ArrangementsinBlue #NetGalley.
January 7, 2024
I thought this book was okay. As someone who is often alone and without a romantic partner - there were lots of pieces of this book that resonated with me. However, the undercurrent of the book is really truly hinged on her pursuit of “being loved� and the tone bounces from being envious, indignant, and overly idealistic of romantic love. I thought it would be more about the coziness and care she offers herself, but it felt more of a sour take on it. On occasion, she talks about domestic care falling outside of romantic love and the love she has for friends, but she seems fixated on romantic love. She doesn’t do a lot to break this down or evaluate why people are so fixated on heteronormative markers of love. I dunno I need to think more about it.
July 17, 2023
one of the most vulnerable books i've ever read!
May 26, 2024
Arrangements in Blue is intense, raw, poetic prose on the absence of romantic love in the life of a woman who idealises it.
Amy Key writes with a vulnerability that is painful to me in its familiarity. The world is not a place that celebrates the single, whole woman, and coming to terms with ones lack of romantic attachment is fraught with obstacles and judgement.
I have so much to say about this book, but I fear it will turn into an outpouring of personal grief so I'll try to keep it short. In some ways, the author and I have undeniable similarities in our outlook. Our uncompromising devotion to the romantic ideal and the desperation to fulfil our romantic destiny in our lifetime, for example. Our tendency toward self-aware jealousy when others get that which we yearn for.
Both of us seem to feel that having that kind of attachment would make us more 'real', like only having a significant other to witness us would complete us. All the media we consume forces us to contend with this expectation, and only when I look around me at all the people I know and the different configurations their lives - romantic and otherwise - have taken do I realise that these feelings are based on the flimsiest of constructs. Most of my married friends aren't any closer to self actualisation than my single friends, and a lot of them don't even have more sex.
In a lot of ways, it is only perpetual singledom that allows one to keep the romantic dream alive in its untouchable poetic purity. Maybe Amy Key and I are both gatekeepers of a fantasy of romantic love that we hold sacred, and that wouldn't survive a few years in an actual domestic coupling. After a couple of years of squeezing someone else's blackheads, maybe we'd both feel differently.
Is it really my lack of a lover that's stopping me from being my best self? Would having a partner stop me from wasting days sitting on the sofa eating cheesy poofs and watching antiques road trip after the initial honeymoon period wore off? I'm inspired to write down my own thoughts and feelings, because this work is a big multifaceted crystal that has reflected all sorts back at me.
This was a beautiful book, full of both joy and pain. I hope Amy Key finds what she's looking for, and that it will end the longing within her. But whether she does or doesn't I hope she realises that her words will pierce dozens of hearts with their observational precision.
Amy Key writes with a vulnerability that is painful to me in its familiarity. The world is not a place that celebrates the single, whole woman, and coming to terms with ones lack of romantic attachment is fraught with obstacles and judgement.
I have so much to say about this book, but I fear it will turn into an outpouring of personal grief so I'll try to keep it short. In some ways, the author and I have undeniable similarities in our outlook. Our uncompromising devotion to the romantic ideal and the desperation to fulfil our romantic destiny in our lifetime, for example. Our tendency toward self-aware jealousy when others get that which we yearn for.
Both of us seem to feel that having that kind of attachment would make us more 'real', like only having a significant other to witness us would complete us. All the media we consume forces us to contend with this expectation, and only when I look around me at all the people I know and the different configurations their lives - romantic and otherwise - have taken do I realise that these feelings are based on the flimsiest of constructs. Most of my married friends aren't any closer to self actualisation than my single friends, and a lot of them don't even have more sex.
In a lot of ways, it is only perpetual singledom that allows one to keep the romantic dream alive in its untouchable poetic purity. Maybe Amy Key and I are both gatekeepers of a fantasy of romantic love that we hold sacred, and that wouldn't survive a few years in an actual domestic coupling. After a couple of years of squeezing someone else's blackheads, maybe we'd both feel differently.
Is it really my lack of a lover that's stopping me from being my best self? Would having a partner stop me from wasting days sitting on the sofa eating cheesy poofs and watching antiques road trip after the initial honeymoon period wore off? I'm inspired to write down my own thoughts and feelings, because this work is a big multifaceted crystal that has reflected all sorts back at me.
This was a beautiful book, full of both joy and pain. I hope Amy Key finds what she's looking for, and that it will end the longing within her. But whether she does or doesn't I hope she realises that her words will pierce dozens of hearts with their observational precision.
March 19, 2024
Giiiiirl this book made me depressed as hell. It is relatable at times and i agree that there is such a thing as couple priviledge, but this feeds so much into the idea that being single = a sad and lonely existence.
I hope the author is okay? Was this a cry for help???
Anywayssss, it's a very personal and vulnerable + well written story, so in that sense, it was ok
Just don't read when single 👍👍👍
I hope the author is okay? Was this a cry for help???
Anywayssss, it's a very personal and vulnerable + well written story, so in that sense, it was ok
Just don't read when single 👍👍👍
October 5, 2023
Dios mío que libro más insufrible, menuda decepción. Fui seducida por la dedicatoria - 'this book is for anyone who needs a love story of being alone' - y por la premisa: cada capítulo se basa en una canción del disco Blue de Joni Mitchell y, en principio, es una memoria que reflexiona sobre la vida fuera de la estructura de la pareja. Obviamente, pensé: esto va a ser increíble. Pues no. Hay un verbo en inglés que nunca sé cómo traducir al castellano que es 'to whine'. Más o menos quiere decir quejarse de forma caprichosa e infantil. Así fue todo el libro. Se me hizo súper repetitivo, un lamento sobre el hecho de estar soltera desde un lugar de sentir mucha pena hacia si misma. En vez de generar un discurso que descentralice el amor romántico para explorar otros afectos e intimidades, siento que el libro se queda súper atascado en la "gran pena" de vivir sin pareja. Y los pocos momentos en los que ofrece críticas hacia la pareja o el amor romántico se quedan muy superficiales y evidentes. Le pongo dos estrellas en vez de 1 o 0 porque tiene algunas partes salvables en las que reflexiona sobre como las estructuras de clase atraviesan la vida doméstica, sobre los obstáculos en el camino de querer ser madre sin tener pareja y sin tener mucho dinero, sobre el duelo en el contexto de la amistad y sobre la música. Pero vamos, no lo recomiendo en absoluto.
September 13, 2023
A readable look into solitude and making your own life, but a bit repetitive (and there seemed to be lacking a strong recognizable style/ voice). But I liked the dairy-feel of it.
February 5, 2024
even the most sincere emotions become nauseatingly self-pitying if they’re stated over and over and over…and how did a book structured around a Joni album barely mention said album except at the beginning and the end???
an editorial failing occurred here
an editorial failing occurred here
October 18, 2023
This book is a lyrical and generous exploration of the author's experience of a life lived in the absence of romantic love. Using Joni Mitchell's seminal album Blue as soundtrack and anchor, Amy Key writes with candour about all aspects of her life: the pride she takes in decorating her own home, in cooking a meal alone, in buying herself flowers and travelling solo, yes, but also the yearning that slips into the interstices, and the compounding loneliness, envy, grief, fear, and financial constraints which invade and destabilise such experiences time and again.
Key admits the fact that she does want romantic love—hers isn't a fable of complete contentment in singledom when the world is built for and around couples—and that both her longing for this love and inability to process the lack thereof have often led her to enacting damaging behaviours: putting herself in debt in the name of self-care, losing track of her own personhood for the sense of being seen, acting out of envy, putting up an invulnerable front only for it to come crumbling when she drinks, and overlooking the other, co-extensive forms of love in her life.
As the album that shaped the author's understanding and expectations about romantic love at an early age, and which continues to offer comfort and sonic companionship, Blue works here as both a device for her to structure her "own chords of inquiry" and the object she reinterprets in light of this journey. Ultimately, however, Key seeks the vulnerability and emotion of the music to decode her own. In thus examining the life she is making for herself, she attempts to cultivate a new vocabulary of pleasure, one which honours and appreciates moments of quiet transformation but also allows for grief, ambivalence, and all the complex textures of life to exist and take up room. I was attracted to this practice in vulnerability, but sometimes it felt like the author's lamenting left little room for finding genuine appreciation of joy.
Perhaps because of how deeply unguarded the writing here is, I found this book quite difficult to read without taking breaks. To me, the frequent repetitions felt uncomfortable and at times clumsy, when they may just have been the author's attempt to wield her hurt like an incantation against more of it. I also had the phrase "bourgeois self-indulgence" pop up in my head a fair bit towards the latter half of the book (I am aware this is a strange accusation to be lobbing at a memoir), likely because I was frustrated with the inconsistency and lack of assuredness that began creeping into the writing around the halfway mark. Arrangements in Blue grew out of an essay Key wrote on the way Mitchell's Blue has impacted her, and it felt like that borrowed structure—of linking her own experiences to what each track on the album has come to mean for her—somewhat constrained the scope of her reflection and analysis insofar as the book is also meant to serve as a guide.
I enjoyed quite a lot about this book: I loved how much poetry Key retains even in her prose, and I adored how she wrote about romantic love as an avenue that we often quite literally lose ourselves in. However, I had wanted it to do a little more, go a little further than merely naming the problem—and it didn't. I would still recommend this to people, but perhaps only ones I know are looking for a different kind of release than I had been.
Key admits the fact that she does want romantic love—hers isn't a fable of complete contentment in singledom when the world is built for and around couples—and that both her longing for this love and inability to process the lack thereof have often led her to enacting damaging behaviours: putting herself in debt in the name of self-care, losing track of her own personhood for the sense of being seen, acting out of envy, putting up an invulnerable front only for it to come crumbling when she drinks, and overlooking the other, co-extensive forms of love in her life.
As the album that shaped the author's understanding and expectations about romantic love at an early age, and which continues to offer comfort and sonic companionship, Blue works here as both a device for her to structure her "own chords of inquiry" and the object she reinterprets in light of this journey. Ultimately, however, Key seeks the vulnerability and emotion of the music to decode her own. In thus examining the life she is making for herself, she attempts to cultivate a new vocabulary of pleasure, one which honours and appreciates moments of quiet transformation but also allows for grief, ambivalence, and all the complex textures of life to exist and take up room. I was attracted to this practice in vulnerability, but sometimes it felt like the author's lamenting left little room for finding genuine appreciation of joy.
Perhaps because of how deeply unguarded the writing here is, I found this book quite difficult to read without taking breaks. To me, the frequent repetitions felt uncomfortable and at times clumsy, when they may just have been the author's attempt to wield her hurt like an incantation against more of it. I also had the phrase "bourgeois self-indulgence" pop up in my head a fair bit towards the latter half of the book (I am aware this is a strange accusation to be lobbing at a memoir), likely because I was frustrated with the inconsistency and lack of assuredness that began creeping into the writing around the halfway mark. Arrangements in Blue grew out of an essay Key wrote on the way Mitchell's Blue has impacted her, and it felt like that borrowed structure—of linking her own experiences to what each track on the album has come to mean for her—somewhat constrained the scope of her reflection and analysis insofar as the book is also meant to serve as a guide.
I enjoyed quite a lot about this book: I loved how much poetry Key retains even in her prose, and I adored how she wrote about romantic love as an avenue that we often quite literally lose ourselves in. However, I had wanted it to do a little more, go a little further than merely naming the problem—and it didn't. I would still recommend this to people, but perhaps only ones I know are looking for a different kind of release than I had been.
May 25, 2023
i knew i would love this book long before it came out. I read one of amy key's essays a year or two ago and felt myself reflected in her words. a lot has changed since then, but i still found this book resonating so strongly with me. i listened to it on audiobook (read beautifully by key herself) and felt a pang when I saw there was only an hour and a half left. several parts of the book, particularly the later chapters brought tears to my eyes. i hate describing women who write honestly about their lives as brave, but i do think key is brave to write so openly about her experiences of being single and the journey her life has taken. key takes a topic so many people feel deep shame and self-doubt about (including myself at times earlier in my life!) and shows her vulnerability and strength throughout the book.
the book is a very poignant and beautiful account of a life lived in most part without romantic relationships and in conversation with joni mitchell's blue album. key doesn't arrive at a neat answer about single life or declare that she doesn't and will never need a romantic partner, but instead honestly explores what it's like not have periods of your life defined by romantic love. life isn't empty of purpose or meaning without a significant other, but key is honest about the drawbacks and difficulties in doing so and doesn't shy away from uncomfortable conclusions or unflattering descriptions of her own experiences.
key's prose is luminous and poetic throughout the book, but it particularly shines in the later chapters. i loved the "crazy" chapter detailing her experiences with men which lasted months and years but never fell under the placeholder of "partner/boyfriend" and found it very relatable. key's candour about these relationships (because yes! you are allowed to call them relationships) is so refreshing - i often feel women are pressured into diminishing the impact of the people who treat us badly, especially if this happens outside the limits of a clearly defined romantic partnership. her description of caring for her friend and mentor roddy lumsden through his illness and eventually mourning him after his death is painfully honest but shot through with such tenderness that i nearly cried listening to it. and the final chapter is a beautiful end to the book, with such warm and hopeful reflections on human connection and care outside and within romantic love.
key's writing is gorgeous throughout the book. her handling of singleness, connection and romance is so nuanced and generous. i also really enjoyed the connecting thread of joni mitchell and the blue album. this is probably my favourite book i've read so far this year and i'll be looking out eagerly for any more writing by amy key in the future.
the book is a very poignant and beautiful account of a life lived in most part without romantic relationships and in conversation with joni mitchell's blue album. key doesn't arrive at a neat answer about single life or declare that she doesn't and will never need a romantic partner, but instead honestly explores what it's like not have periods of your life defined by romantic love. life isn't empty of purpose or meaning without a significant other, but key is honest about the drawbacks and difficulties in doing so and doesn't shy away from uncomfortable conclusions or unflattering descriptions of her own experiences.
key's prose is luminous and poetic throughout the book, but it particularly shines in the later chapters. i loved the "crazy" chapter detailing her experiences with men which lasted months and years but never fell under the placeholder of "partner/boyfriend" and found it very relatable. key's candour about these relationships (because yes! you are allowed to call them relationships) is so refreshing - i often feel women are pressured into diminishing the impact of the people who treat us badly, especially if this happens outside the limits of a clearly defined romantic partnership. her description of caring for her friend and mentor roddy lumsden through his illness and eventually mourning him after his death is painfully honest but shot through with such tenderness that i nearly cried listening to it. and the final chapter is a beautiful end to the book, with such warm and hopeful reflections on human connection and care outside and within romantic love.
key's writing is gorgeous throughout the book. her handling of singleness, connection and romance is so nuanced and generous. i also really enjoyed the connecting thread of joni mitchell and the blue album. this is probably my favourite book i've read so far this year and i'll be looking out eagerly for any more writing by amy key in the future.
June 25, 2023
A strong opener with beautiful writing, but I was hugely let down by how much actually the author had centered herself around men, much to her clear dismantling of self, well into her 30s and 40s. I wish I hadn't read the second half.
April 6, 2024
In Key writes about her life as a single childless woman in her forties and how she feels about it. The framing mechanism of Joni Mitchell songs is fairly flimsy and places only a loose structure around her personal narrative. I decided to read it because I too am a spinster and ended up fascinated by the vast contrasts between our experiences. While Key and I have totally different emotions about middle-aged singledom, our practical priority is exactly the same: housing security. We are both deeply thankful to own our little flats, having escaped the chronic insecurity of renting in the UK.
is not a happy book, nor is it advocating for the single lifestyle. Key has reconciled herself to her situation and sees the best in it, but it isn't what she wanted or expected. She discusses a lot of painful topics, including childhood abuse, caring for a close friend who died of illness caused by alcoholism, debt, unhappy relationships, and her desire to have children. Her frank honesty is lacerating at times, but I appreciated this introspection and found it gave me food for thought.
At the end of the book are a series of conclusions and affirmations, of which this was my favourite: 'I deserve to dream a good dream of the future. I've stopped waiting for it to begin.' I appreciated how carefully Key examined her own complex and ambivalent feelings about romantic love. Although they are quite different in tone and focus, I think would be interesting to read with by Daniel Schreiber.
is not a happy book, nor is it advocating for the single lifestyle. Key has reconciled herself to her situation and sees the best in it, but it isn't what she wanted or expected. She discusses a lot of painful topics, including childhood abuse, caring for a close friend who died of illness caused by alcoholism, debt, unhappy relationships, and her desire to have children. Her frank honesty is lacerating at times, but I appreciated this introspection and found it gave me food for thought.
At the end of the book are a series of conclusions and affirmations, of which this was my favourite: 'I deserve to dream a good dream of the future. I've stopped waiting for it to begin.' I appreciated how carefully Key examined her own complex and ambivalent feelings about romantic love. Although they are quite different in tone and focus, I think would be interesting to read with by Daniel Schreiber.
August 7, 2023
the good parts here feel very real and brave (and sad).
they also have a 'saying the quiet part out loud' feel to them,
dealing with emotions that are probably common but often not depicted in
the larger culture with much nuance.
kind of read that compels one to journal/interrogate their own thoughts more,
so should write a longer review later.
they also have a 'saying the quiet part out loud' feel to them,
dealing with emotions that are probably common but often not depicted in
the larger culture with much nuance.
kind of read that compels one to journal/interrogate their own thoughts more,
so should write a longer review later.
August 2, 2024
I really loved this. It was so honest and raw. The topic that was discussed is so important at this age seeing as how people feel less for not experiencing the typical romantic love. There is just more to this world that adds value and happiness to life than a romantic partner. I feel like it should be discussed more. I really loved how honest and vulnerable the author was in discussing her experience.
September 28, 2024
cork mentioned!!!
January 22, 2025
personal and touching. i want to buy it just to highlight some passages.
November 6, 2024
This is quite a tough one to review if I'm honest.
Amy Key's writing is raw, visceral and very very frank. She is self-aware and willing to admit to character flaws and negative behaviour traits, much more so than many of us would care to do. But in this honesty I find some difficulty in really enjoying the writing. Though Amy's take is far from the pity party trope, there is an element of oversharing that feels awkward to read, like I'm sharing some deep existential pain that I really shouldn't be privy to. I just feel sad that she has spent so many years of her life feeling unlovable. No-one should be made to feel that way.
As the read doesn't feel comfortable and it hasn't really been a truly enriching experience, I give it 2 stars. I'm unlikely to read it again so I'm going to donate to my local library where hopefully it might speak to someone in ways that it couldn't speak to me.
Amy Key's writing is raw, visceral and very very frank. She is self-aware and willing to admit to character flaws and negative behaviour traits, much more so than many of us would care to do. But in this honesty I find some difficulty in really enjoying the writing. Though Amy's take is far from the pity party trope, there is an element of oversharing that feels awkward to read, like I'm sharing some deep existential pain that I really shouldn't be privy to. I just feel sad that she has spent so many years of her life feeling unlovable. No-one should be made to feel that way.
As the read doesn't feel comfortable and it hasn't really been a truly enriching experience, I give it 2 stars. I'm unlikely to read it again so I'm going to donate to my local library where hopefully it might speak to someone in ways that it couldn't speak to me.
January 28, 2025
NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I FELT MORE SEEN THAN WHEN READING THIS BOOK!
I often hear other readers describe how an author “got me� and how a book literally “spoke to me� and whilst I’ve certainly connected to books and their characters in the past and had emotions triggered, I confess I’ve never had that insanely deep connection that I hear so many readers exclaim about� until now!
Arrangements in Blue is a memoir of making a life, mainly as a singleton. One with plenty of friends but with romantic love a scarcity, right into your 40s. It is real, it is witty, it is happy and sad all at the same time. It is STRONG!
The author, Amy Key, takes us through the various emotional chapters of her life to date and relays how the social stigma of being single has impacted her through various little anecdotes over the years, set to the soundtrack of Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue.
Why are you still single? Have you not found a man yet? Oh don’t worry, it will happen when you least expect it?
This book literally sang out to me. It literally is me. I gasped whilst reading some of Amy’s experiences, like seeing my own life down in print. As I leafed over each page, it gave me great comfort as I read more and more about our similar experiences. By the time I finished the book (I read it in 2 days) I felt a whole lot stronger, confident even. To know that the stigma is not just in my head. To know that, no, we’re not doing anything wrong (as I’ve been told on countless occasions). It’s not us. And, do you know what, we’re going to be absolutely fine even if love continues to evade us.
Thank you, Amy Key, for an uplifting read and sharing your soul, and private experiences, with the rest of us.
“I said to myself, resist this, this sense of a wavering self, incomplete until I attain a universally regarded achievement. I need to be intact within my own situation, fend off the sense of my status as a single, childless person as a temporary, undesirable spell, of my own provisionality as a subject. Self-love has to include a disregard for how other people might perceive me, and living as though life is in the present, rather than something that will start in earnest once certain thresholds have been passed.�
I often hear other readers describe how an author “got me� and how a book literally “spoke to me� and whilst I’ve certainly connected to books and their characters in the past and had emotions triggered, I confess I’ve never had that insanely deep connection that I hear so many readers exclaim about� until now!
Arrangements in Blue is a memoir of making a life, mainly as a singleton. One with plenty of friends but with romantic love a scarcity, right into your 40s. It is real, it is witty, it is happy and sad all at the same time. It is STRONG!
The author, Amy Key, takes us through the various emotional chapters of her life to date and relays how the social stigma of being single has impacted her through various little anecdotes over the years, set to the soundtrack of Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue.
Why are you still single? Have you not found a man yet? Oh don’t worry, it will happen when you least expect it?
This book literally sang out to me. It literally is me. I gasped whilst reading some of Amy’s experiences, like seeing my own life down in print. As I leafed over each page, it gave me great comfort as I read more and more about our similar experiences. By the time I finished the book (I read it in 2 days) I felt a whole lot stronger, confident even. To know that the stigma is not just in my head. To know that, no, we’re not doing anything wrong (as I’ve been told on countless occasions). It’s not us. And, do you know what, we’re going to be absolutely fine even if love continues to evade us.
Thank you, Amy Key, for an uplifting read and sharing your soul, and private experiences, with the rest of us.
“I said to myself, resist this, this sense of a wavering self, incomplete until I attain a universally regarded achievement. I need to be intact within my own situation, fend off the sense of my status as a single, childless person as a temporary, undesirable spell, of my own provisionality as a subject. Self-love has to include a disregard for how other people might perceive me, and living as though life is in the present, rather than something that will start in earnest once certain thresholds have been passed.�
May 18, 2024
Key is unflinchingly honest and vulnerable about her experience of living without romantic love. However, I can’t help but be disappointed by this book. Key doesn’t meaningfully interrogate the social structures which elevate romantic relationships above all others, or explore alternative ways of living that can be equally - if not more - rewarding. She engages with these notions in passing and emphasises the importance of her non-romantic relationships, but the unerring focus on her longing for romantic relationships and musings on why she has ‘failed� to attain one overshadows all else. While Key concludes life can be meaningful without romantic love, she firmly keeps romantic relationships on their pedestal.
Perhaps this is Key’s experience, and so fair to present in this light. Perhaps it is useful to depict this longing honestly, and serves as a reminder of all the way society privileges romantic partnerships unfairly. Perhaps I just disagree with some of Key’s assertions. But given how the book is marketed and some of the points Key raises, it feels like a missed opportunity to explore how we could all live differently, as a society - and how this work isn’t only the responsibility of those who are single.
Perhaps this is Key’s experience, and so fair to present in this light. Perhaps it is useful to depict this longing honestly, and serves as a reminder of all the way society privileges romantic partnerships unfairly. Perhaps I just disagree with some of Key’s assertions. But given how the book is marketed and some of the points Key raises, it feels like a missed opportunity to explore how we could all live differently, as a society - and how this work isn’t only the responsibility of those who are single.
June 19, 2023
ive never felt so felt and so seen and so empty and full of longing. amy key has such a way with words and perfectly encapsulating the feeling of wanting and needing love and friendship and connection. it’s crazy that you can read works like arrangements in blue and suddenly you’re not alone in feeling alone� there’s someone, and people, out there who have also grappled in the dark of night feeling loveless and unworthy of love because of the lack of it. it feels so trivial and childlike to say i greatly enjoyed this entire piece about love, because while love was the main subject of the book, it feels like the gateway to so much more. this felt like a personal letter to oneself about forgiving life and circumstances that weren’t pleasant or what you hoped, but you can see in retrospect your soul and your want and your heart and your longing never left you and maybe you aren’t alone like you thought and if you are alone it’s not bad or the end of your life. lots of thoughts that i can’t even put into words half as well as amy key does but wow this was a looking into some of my own inner thoughts i’ve had through periods of my life and it serves as a soothing balm in that way.
January 13, 2024
I was influenced by an Instagram reel to start this book. I didn’t have much context other than it was a transformative book for someone who had been single for a long time.
It is difficult for me to rate Arrangements in Blue because Key is so beautifully rich and inviting and vulnerable and I want to give her 15 stars for sharing her heart so generously. But I really struggled through the Joni Mitchell references, never fully embracing their relevance and making my reading experience less than ideal.
HOWEVER. I have never read someone so honestly share their experiences with singleness. The thoughts, feelings, desires that often feel so isolating and maybe too personal to share? She lays them all out. I feel so seen. So I’ve landed at 4 stars and am grateful to have read this.
It is difficult for me to rate Arrangements in Blue because Key is so beautifully rich and inviting and vulnerable and I want to give her 15 stars for sharing her heart so generously. But I really struggled through the Joni Mitchell references, never fully embracing their relevance and making my reading experience less than ideal.
HOWEVER. I have never read someone so honestly share their experiences with singleness. The thoughts, feelings, desires that often feel so isolating and maybe too personal to share? She lays them all out. I feel so seen. So I’ve landed at 4 stars and am grateful to have read this.
July 11, 2024
This book was A LOT...
I cannot respect Key enough for being so brutally honest and vulnerable about the lack of romantic love in her life. I have not read something where I stopped to think and internalise quotes more than this book. Although it did kind of set me off in a spiral with no actual resolution to her dark and lonely feelings but I can see how learning to let the worldly and societal pressures go may be the only way to be happy and I'll probably have to reread this is a few years once my youth has faded and it will hit me even harder.
I cannot respect Key enough for being so brutally honest and vulnerable about the lack of romantic love in her life. I have not read something where I stopped to think and internalise quotes more than this book. Although it did kind of set me off in a spiral with no actual resolution to her dark and lonely feelings but I can see how learning to let the worldly and societal pressures go may be the only way to be happy and I'll probably have to reread this is a few years once my youth has faded and it will hit me even harder.
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