The River in the Sky

James, Clive - RARE SIGNED FIRST EDITION HARDBACK

ISBN 10: 1509887237 / ISBN 13: 9781509887231

Published by Picador, 2018

About this Item

This one of the few copies issued with a signed bookplate attached to the title page. An inevitably moving work; inspirational and at times surgically precise. This is one for Everyman, as well as serious fans and completists. It is tight, new and unread. Carefully stored in a low light book room.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1622283379504

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The River in the Sky
• Publisher: Picador
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1509887237
• ISBN 13: 9781509887231
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Signed: Signed by Author

About this title

Synopsis

Clive James has been close to death for several years, and he has written about the experience in a series of deeply moving poems. In Sentenced to Life, he was clear-sighted as he faced the end, honest about his regrets. In Injury Time, he wrote about living well in the time remaining, focusing our attention on the joys of family and art, and celebrating the immediate beauty of the world.

When The River in the Sky opens, we find James in ill health but high spirits. Although his body traps him at home, his mind is free to roam, and this long poem is animated by his recollection of what life was and never will be again; as it resolves into a flowing stream of vivid images, his memories are emotionally supercharged ‘by the force of their own fading’. In this form, the poet can transmit the felt experience of his exceptional life to the reader.

As ever with James, his enthusiasm is contagious; he shares his wide interests with enormous generosity, making brilliant and original connections, sparking passion in the reader so that you can explore the world’s treasures yourself. Because this is not just a reminiscence, it’s a wise and moving preparation for and acceptance of death. As James realizes that he is only one bright spot in a galaxy of stars, he passes the torch to the poets of the future, to his young granddaughter, and to you, his reader.

A book that could not have been written by anyone else, this is Clive James at the height of his considerable powers: funny, wise, deeply felt, and always expressed with an unmatched power for clarity of expression and phrase-making that has been his been his hallmark.