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.
Rosenblatt’s witty and poignant exploration delivers:
- Witty and Profound Musings: Rosenblatt’s signature blend of humor and intellect, where observations on love songs sit alongside deep philosophical questions.
- Vignettes About Love: A collection of short, fictional scenes capturing lovers in different situations, ages, and temperaments, each a perfectly crystallized moment.
- A Celebration of Long-Term Marriage: At its heart, the book is a love letter, with deeply moving notes addressed to the author’s wife of fifty years.
- The Philosophy of an Emotion: An ambitious quest to define the undefinable, exploring every facet of love from ecstatic romance and family bonds to the love of home, art, and life itself.
"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."
