Pondlife

A Swimmer's Journal

Al Alvarez

$19.99

Paperback

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English

Bloomsbury US
26 March 2015

Memoirs; Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Coping with old age

From the author of The Savage God, a unique memoir of growing old, and a lesson in not going gently into that good night

The

ponds of Hampstead Heath are small oases; fragments of wild nature

nestled in the heart of north-west London. For the best part of his life

Al Alvarez – poet, critic, novelist, rock-climber and poker player –

has swum in them almost daily.

An athlete in his youth, Alvarez chronicles what it is to grow old with humour and

fierce honesty – from his relentlessly nagging ankle which makes daily

life a struggle, to infuriating bureaucratic battles with the council to

keep his disabled person’s Blue Badge, the devastating effects of a

stroke, and the salvation he finds in the three Ss – Swimming, Sex and

Sleep.

As Alvarez swims in the ponds he considers how it feels

when you begin to miss that person you used to be – to miss yourself.

Swimming is his own private form of protest against the onslaught of

time; proof to others, and himself, that he’s not yet beaten.

By turns funny, poetic and indignant, Pondlife

is a meditation on love, the importance of life’s small pleasures and,

above all, a lesson in not going gently in to that good night.

'A beautiful unfolding of a story, told in deceptively simple prose but with a great power to move' Sunday Times

'The adrenalin still flows in lively extracts' The Times

'A marvellous book... it has no business to be as invigorating and absorbing – its success is against the odds' Observer

By: Al Alvarez
Imprint: Bloomsbury US
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 234g
ISBN: 9781408841020
ISBN 10: 1408841029
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 26 March 2015
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Al Alvarez is a poet, novelist, literary critic, anthologist, and author of many highly praised non-fiction books on topics ranging from suicide, divorce and dreams - The Savage God, Life After Marriage, Night - to poker and mountaineering - The Biggest Game in Town and Feeding The Rat. His most recent books are Where Did It All Go Right?, The Writer's Voice and Risky Business. He lives in Hampstead, London.

Reviews for Pondlife: A Swimmer's Journal

The adrenalin still flows in lively extracts from 11 years of journals * The Times * A beautiful unfolding of a story, told in deceptively simple prose but with a great power to move * Sunday Times * A marvellous book. Even the title Pondlife is spot-on: unlaboured, light and right. But it has no business to be as invigorating and absorbing - its success is against the odds * Observer * Al Alvarez is a writer's writer whose brilliant insight has illuminated everything from suicide to his love of poker ... A miniature classic of a man's defiant assertion against ageing * Metro *