In The Violet Hour, Katie Roiphe takes an unexpected and liberating approach to the most unavoidable of subjects. She investigates the last days of six great thinkers, writers and artists as they come to terms with the reality of approaching death. Roiphe draws on her own extraordinary research and access to the family, friends and caretakers of her subjects. Here is Susan Sontag, the consummate public intellectual, who finds her commitment to rational thinking tested during her third bout with cancer. Roiphe takes us to ...
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In The Violet Hour, Katie Roiphe takes an unexpected and liberating approach to the most unavoidable of subjects. She investigates the last days of six great thinkers, writers and artists as they come to terms with the reality of approaching death. Roiphe draws on her own extraordinary research and access to the family, friends and caretakers of her subjects. Here is Susan Sontag, the consummate public intellectual, who finds her commitment to rational thinking tested during her third bout with cancer. Roiphe takes us to the hospital room where, after receiving the worst possible diagnosis, seventy-six-year-old John Updike begins writing a poem. She vividly re-creates the fortnight of almost suicidal excess that culminated in Dylan Thomas's fatal collapse on the floor of a Greenwich Village tavern. She gives us a bracing portrait of Sigmund Freud fleeing Nazi-occupied Vienna only to continue in his London exile the compulsive cigar smoking that he knows will hasten his decline. She shows us how Maurice Sendak's beloved books for children are infused with his lifelong obsession with death, if you know where to look. And from James Salter she learns that 'we make our own comfort.' The Violet Hour is a book filled with intimate and surprising revelations. In the final acts of each of these creative geniuses are examples of courage, passion, self-delusion, pointless suffering and superb devotion. There are also moments of sublime insight and understanding where the mind creates its own comfort. As the author writes, 'If it's nearly impossible to capture the approach of death in words, who would have the most hope of doing it?' By bringing these great writers' final days to urgent, unsentimental life, Katie Roiphe helps us to look boldly in the face of death and be less afraid.
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Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $1.26, very good condition, Sold by More Than Words rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Waltham, MA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Dial Press.
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Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $2.98, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $3.04, good condition, Sold by Blue Vase Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Interlochen, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by The Dial Press.
Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $4.18, very good condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Dial Press.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. Like New dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp. Bundled media such as CDs, DVDs, floppy disks or access codes may not be included.
Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $5.13, fair condition, Sold by Ebooksweb rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensalem, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $5.26, very good condition, Sold by Ebooksweb rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensalem, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $5.47, good condition, Sold by Ebooksweb rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensalem, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $6.05, like new condition, Sold by Ebooksweb rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensalem, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $7.24, new condition, Sold by Ebooksweb rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensalem, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Dial Press.
Add this copy of The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End to cart. $8.95, like new condition, Sold by Longhouse, Pub. & Bookseller rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from West Brattleboro, VT, UNITED STATES, published by The Dial Press, 2016.
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As new and bright boards in like dustjacket with crisp bright text throughout. Portraits of the last days of Sontag, Freud, Updike, Dylan Thomas, Sendak, James Salter. As new.
