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The Presence [Paperback]

Dannie Abse (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £6.74 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Book Description

Publication Date: 2 Oct 2008

WINNER OF THE WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN/ACKERLY PRIZE.

Several months after the death of poet Dannie Abse's wife, Joan, in a car accident, he began to write a diary which is both a record of present grief and a portrait of a marriage that lasted more than fifty years. It is an extraordinary document, painful but celebratory, funny yet often tragic, bursting with joy as well as sorrow and full of a deep understanding of what it means to be human.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; Paperback Edition, First Printing edition (2 Oct 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099531860
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099531869
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.8 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 223,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Dannie Abse
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Product Description

Review

"A supremely fresh and vital performance, matching profound emotion with witty observation... This is a truly marvellous book" (Independent )

"Abse's diary is a remarkable and tender document" (Sunday Times )

"For all its painful honesty, [this is] a surprisingly joyful and compelling book... Imbued with all the best qualities of what it means to human and in love" (Independent on Sunday )

"The Presence is a fragment of autobiography written from the most private part of a poet's heart, with a pen dipped in blood and tears. That it transcends this to become both elegiac and celebratory, to inhabit both the suffered present and the beloved past, places it almost beyond the scope of routine criticism." (Daily Telegraph )

"Hauntingly poignant... One hopes that he comes before long to share the happiness this wise, funny, heart rending little book brings to its readers" (Daily Telegraph )

Review

It's a very moving document, suffused with the pain of losing Joan, at the same time acknowledging her continuing presence'
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Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
9 reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A moving tribute 14 Oct 2008
By Henry J. Blackmore
Format:Hardcover
Dr Dannie Abse has written a moving tribute to his departed beloved partner after 50 years. As a retired psychiatrist I found his self-assessment of his bereaved state deeply touching, particularly because I and my wife have been together nigh on sixty years in a loving companionship too. A reason for reading this book was my anticipation how I might cope if my wife predeceases me and I am left, like Dr Abse, musing over wonderful memories. I liked the way he juxtaposed the present with the past in his diary, and the appropriate, often amusing, anecdotes interspersed throughout. My belated sincere condolences and my hope that his loss has been alleviated by writing and sharing with others. PS: I must sadly confess to being a poetry-philistine, but I'm sure the "poetry-enamoured" will appreciate Dr Abse's poems.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A difficult territory 2 July 2009
By Keith Miller
Format:Paperback
This moving journal charts Abse's reactions during the year after he lost his wife, Joan, in a traffic accident. Having lost my daughter in a traffic accident nearly a year ago I found it comforting to read his words - it made me realise that the range of feelings I have are not unique: that I am not mad ... but that the grief one feels when an innocent loved one is killed in this way is complex and long-lasting. He is an eloquent guide to this difficult territory ... at times, so 'eloquent' that I found myself having to consult the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary in order to understand some of his words - and this, despite having a master's degree in English! However, maybe such a difficult journey needs difficult language to try to explain things at times.

The journal also includes various poems - both by Abse and other writers -that shed light on his feelings.

This is a moving book - but it is not unremittingly bleak: at times it will make the reader laugh as well as cry. Whilst I obviously found it struck a special chord for me, I don't feel that you have to be grief-stricken in order to appreciate Abse's evocation of his wife's presence and the charting of his journey through the year following her death ... indeed, it would be foolish to make such an assumption, just as it would to make the assumption that a reader has to be old and have ungrateful children in order to appreciate 'King Lear'!

Abse is famous as a poet, but he is a fine writer of prose too, as this journal attests. I recommend the book - buy it - you won't be disappointed.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A moving tribute to lost love 18 July 2009
By Mrs. K. A. Wheatley TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Dannie Abse lost his beloved wife Joan in a car accident in which he survived. Here he charts his progress in a kind of diary/memoir of the year after her death.

It is gentle, emotional without being sentimental and full of wonderful poems (not just his own) and quotations from which he has found strength or the perfect way to express his feelings.

This is not just a book about grief, it is a book which celebrates and reveres a deep and lasting love for another human being, one which shaped his life and understanding. His attempts to navigate life without that presence is truly touching.
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