The Perfect Stranger by P J Kavanagh
First published in 1966, this extraordinary memoir has collected a passionate band of devotees. Written with a poet's precision, it is a funny, absorbing and brilliantly portrayed rite of passage - from school playing fields to war's battlefields, holiday camps to writers' hang-outs, Brighton to Paris, Korea to Oxford, Barcelona to Jakarta ... Driving the narrator is a desire to recount the effect of a singular young woman; the love of her and the loss of her. A joyous and movingly wise evocation of youth, travel and love; those moments of maximum brilliance, at the edge of possibility.
The writing remains vivid and detailed, full of concise pen portraits.. it's hard to think of a memoir by a male author that describes the experience [of love] with as much honesty, passion and precision.' --David Nicholls '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
P. J. Kavanagh (1931-2015) was a poet, writer, actor, broadcaster and columnist. He went to a Benedictine school, served in the Korean war during national service, worked for the British Council in Barcelona and Indonesia, and acted on stage and TV - his last appearance in an episode of Father Ted. The Perfect Stranger was awarded the Richard Hillary Memorial Prize in 1966, and his novel A Song and Dance won the 1968 Guardian Fiction Prize. Poetry remained his major occupation, and his Collected Poems was given the Cholmondeley Award in 1992.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781910463291 |
| ISBN 10 | 1910463299 |
| Title | The Perfect Stranger |
| Author | P J Kavanagh |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | September Publishing |
| Year published | 2016-05-12 |
| Number of pages | 212 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |