ARRANGEMENTS IN BLUE

A collection of introspective essays about singleness, organized by themes from Joni Mitchell's Blue.

Mitchell's iconic album came out in 1971, seven years before Key was born; when Key discovered it as a teen, it became her guide to life and love. One night when she was 14, “Blue ignited my desire and ambition for romantic love, my idea of how I would press my heart against the world. What appealed, I think, was the way it described the complexities of love. It was the best representation of love that seemed truthful: love as best and worst, joy and sorrow.” The author, now in her mid-40s, has not had a boyfriend in more than two decades. Key, a poet and essayist, excavates this predicament in 10 essays named for bits of Mitchell's songs—Chapter 1: "Love / looking for something, what can it be”; Chapter 2: "Home / the bed’s too big, the frying pan’s too wide"—assiduously interrogating her emotions in a manner similar to a session with a therapist. Though some of Key’s issues are relatable ("I never feel uglier than when I see myself in a hairdresser's mirror"), many are tedious and excruciating. The author writes about how she “used to identify myself as some kind of patron saint of unrequited love,” and she repeatedly acknowledges that her obsession with her predicament makes her even less desirable. However, she has also rejected men who pursued her, and one of them died recently. The most unbearable part of the book details the weeks of his demise, a nightmare of alcohol-induced liver failure. Despite his suffering, Key maintains the focus on how it has affected her. The author writes well about Mitchell’s music, but many readers will be uninterested in the dull story of her not becoming a single parent and the dreary scenes from her solo vacations.

A gathering of uninspiring self-assessments.