The perfect stranger / [by] P.J. Kavanagh
Kavanagh, P. J. (Patrick Joseph) (b. 1931-)
Language: English
Published by London (27 Goodge St., W.1) : Quartet Books, 1974
- Softcover
- Used
Condition: Used
£ 7.82
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Near fine paperback copy; wrapper edges very slightly dulled. Some tearing internally. Remains particularly well-preserved overall. Physical description; [5],182p. ; 18cm. Subjects; Kavanagh, Patrick Joseph 1931-. Authors, English Correspondence. Authors, English 20th century ; Biography. Authors, English Correspondence, reminiscences, etc. Poetry in English Kavanagh, Patrick Joseph, b.1931 Autobiographies. 1 Kg.
Seller Inventory # 353686
- Title
- The perfect stranger / [by] P.J. Kavanagh
- Author
- Kavanagh, P. J. (Patrick Joseph) (b. 1931-)
- Publisher
- London (27 Goodge St., W.1) : Quartet Books
- Publication year
- 1974
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0704310007
- ISBN 13
- 9780704310001
- Edition
- Reprint.
- Item weight
- 1 kilogram
The early years of poet P.J. Kavanagh’s life – which took him from a Butlin’s Holiday Camp to Switzerland and Paris, to a battlefield in Korea, to Oxford and Barcelona, and finally to Java – made little sense to him, until ‘something extraordinary happened’: his meeting with Sally, ‘the perfect stranger’.
This tender, funny and quite unsentimental record of the uniqueness of human love is as much a celebration of joy – despite its abrupt and shocking conclusion – as it is a poet’s tribute of thanks.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
'A fine memorial to love and youth.' --Michael Frayn
'One of the best memoirs I have read ... humorous and poetic.' --Richard Ingrams
'I've re-read The Perfect Stranger many times and still think it, though unique, a model "of its kind".' --Derek Mahon
'To hear the truth so devastatingly and yet so joyfully encountered is rare in an age where autobiography has been flattened by the massed weight of political and public reminiscence. This autobiography, from its beginning to its bitter end, is a celebration of joy: joy in youth, in woman, in male camaraderie, in the struggle of art, in married love.' --The Times Literary Supplement
'[A] remarkable work of prose ... It won the Richard Hillary Memorial Prize, for in reality it was a testimony to the absence of the one person who could help him work out the puzzle of life, his wife, Sally' --The Independent
'A joyous yet unsentimental account of Kavanagh's early life and his few years with Sally. A story of love and tragic loss' -- The Guardian
'Not sentimental nor self-pitying but vivid, humorous and bent upon describing a world in which the one person who had seemed to make sense of it had been lost.' --The Telegraph
'A terrific book, vivid, funny and moving ... The account of his narrow escape from the great battle in Korea is brilliant, as is in a quite different way the elegiac conclusion to the book.' --David Lodge
'Patrick Kavanagh's memoir is a small masterpiece of its kind, reflecting all the wit, unabashed frankness and literary elegance of its author.' --Max Hastings
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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Asia and Asian Colonial History, Travel and Exploration, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Political Economy, Labour History and Literature, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Social HistorySeller's business information
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