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The Argonauts Kindle Edition

by Maggie Nelson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,641 ratings
Goodreads Choice Award nominee
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An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family

Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. It binds an account of Nelson's relationship with her partner and a journey to and through a pregnancy to a rigorous exploration of sexuality, gender, and "family." An insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying cry for this thoughtful, unabashed, uncompromising book.

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  1. Print length
    158 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Graywolf Press
  5. Publication date
    May 5, 2015
  6. File size
    2154 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

In this gender-bending memoir, Maggie Nelson writes about the way both their bodies were changing, and about the intricacies of building her queer family.

-- "New York Times"

One of the most intelligent, generous, and moving books of the year.

-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

Part portrait of a happy family, part critical meditation on queerness...It doesn't hurt that she speaks with the voice of a poet either.

-- "Vulture.com, A Best Book of 2015 So Far"

A magnificent achievement of thought, care, and art.

-- "Los Angeles Times"

A superb exploration of the risk and the excitement of change...An exceptional portrait both of a romantic partnership and of the collaboration between Nelson's mind and heart.

-- "New Yorker"

Reading Maggie Nelson is like watching a high-wire act. Her books are inspiring.

-- "Boston Globe"

A book that will challenge readers as much as the author has challenged herself.

-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"

So much writing about motherhood makes the world seem smaller after the child arrives...Nelson's book does the opposite.

-- "New York Times Book Review"

[An] incredibly rich autobiographical meditation...Nelson blends philosophical inquiry, memoir, and gender criticism in a form she has dubbed 'autotheory.' Like her writing, Nelson's theory blurs, eradicates, even breaks the margins of binary thinking and of the prevailing normative notion that we should each live a life that is 'all one thing.'

-- "Library Journal"

Exploring questions of family, mortality, and gender, and finding inspiration in both the personal and the artistic along the way.

-- "Vol1Brooklyn.com, Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 So Far"

Slays entrenched notions of gender, marriage, and sexuality with lyricism, intellectual brass, and soul-ringing honesty.

-- "Vanity Fair"

Nelson's writing is fluid...She masterfully analyzes the way we talk about sex and gender.

-- "Huffington Post"

About the Author

Maggie Nelson is a poet, art critic, and author of nonfiction books such as The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning, Bluets, and Jane: A Murder. She teaches in the School of Critical Studies at CalArts.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00P5EDBHU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Graywolf Press (May 5, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 5, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2154 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 158 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,641 ratings

About the author

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Maggie Nelson

Maggie Nelson

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Maggie Nelson is the author of several acclaimed books in multiple genres. Her books of nonfiction include Like Love: Essays and Conversations (Graywolf Press, 2024), On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (Graywolf Press, 2021), The Argonauts (Graywolf Press, 2015), global best-seller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; a landmark work of cultural, art, and literary criticism titled The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (Norton, 2011), which was named a NY Times Notable Book of the Year; the cult classic Bluets (Wave Books, 2009), which was named by Bookforum one of the 10 best books of the past 20 years; a memoir about her family, media spectacle, and sexual violence titled The Red Parts (originally published by Free Press in 2007, reissued by Graywolf in 2016); and a critical study of painting and poetry titled Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa, 2007; winner, the Susanne M. Glassock Award for Interdisciplinary Scholarship). Her books of poetry include Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007), Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull, 2005; finalist, the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir), The Latest Winter (Hanging Loose Press, 2003), and Shiner (Hanging Loose, 2001). She has been the recipient of a Creative Capital Literature Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction, an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and an Andy Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant. In 2016 she received a MacArthur "genius" grant. She currently teaches at the University of Southern California.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
1,641 global ratings
Five Star Writing… One Star Product
5 Stars
Five Star Writing… One Star Product
FANTASTIC book. Maggie Nelson writes candidly and fiercely about what it means to be queer, to be a family, and to be human. I cannot recommend this book enough. HOWEVER, the book I ordered and received from Amazon was printed incorrectly, with pages missing and ordered incorrectly. I would highly recommend buying this book elsewhere(Read: Support a local bookstore!)
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Top reviews from the United States

Kristen
5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply introspective, deeply subversive, and deeply beautiful.
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
Every line in this book feels worthy of deep meditation. It reads like a wonderful cross between a memoir, a novel, and poetry. I read it in one all-consuming sitting.

I've read lots of queer literature, queer philosophy, and queer theory in the past decade, but this book made me feel more introspective, thoughtful, and curious about gender, femininity, motherhood, and sex than ever before. Nelson's references to feminist and queer theorists make you feel like you're "in" on something if you've read them, or serve as a great contextualizing introduction if you haven't.

I'm absolutely in love with this book. It may be because it was so easy for me to see myself in her writing, but it may also be because she says so many true things that I haven't been able to voice, even to myself.
9 people found this helpful
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hilal isler
5.0 out of 5 stars sharp
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2019
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okay wow, what did i just read?! the argonauts = an astounding meditation on gender, and sex, and motherhood, and family, and longing, and the limits of language...on the possibilities of love.

maggie nelson has produced a robust, incredibly smart work of "autotheory." i don't think i've read anything like it before. i still feel dazed by the power of her prose, by her ability to synthesize information, observation, emotion. i've been pushed and discomforted and expanded as a reader.

what would it mean to live in a world beyond binaries? what would it mean to live from a place of uncompromising freedom? provocative, bold, honest. highly recommended. five big stars.
4 people found this helpful
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EZ
4.0 out of 5 stars A bit confusing but touching
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2020
Verified Purchase
It was a bit confusing because apparently the author's wife goes by he him pronouns and underwent medical transition but identifies as female and butch still. I actually am of the exact same identity profile and I know he/him lesbians are a thing, but I still did not understand what was going on, and I dunno if she's purposely messing with the reader or what because there aren't any context clues. This book is largely about the author's relationship, so that makes it confusing. She talks about straight women loving her husband and being strange, so that's confusing – – like why wouldn't a straight woman be attracted to a man. But then it turns out he doesn't identify as a man. I don't know, maybe I'm too hung up on this or it's because I have autism, but I found it overly Cryptic even though I am from within the trans community. However there were many parts that hit me really deeply and I think this is really personal layered complicated and beautiful.
17 people found this helpful
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Josephine
5.0 out of 5 stars BOOK GREAT - WHAT I CAN READ OF IT...
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2023
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I highly recommend reading anything by Maggie Nelson, just do not buy this book from Amazon right now. They have editions that have an enormous misprint and it is VERY irritating that there is not an option to just get my back. I am a reader who underlines and makes notes in the margins of the books I read and cannot now return the book. I am going to contact Graywolf Press and hope they will send me another copy printed correctly. Amazon, I need your customer service to contact me regarding this error, that is if a representative actually sees and reads this. Very disappointed.
4 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars I think this book needs to be red twice to fully grasp it's meaning.
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2018
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This was a book assigned to me for a woman's sexuality & their bodies course. I found it to be somewhat difficult to understand. I had to look up various words in order to follow along with the story.
2 people found this helpful
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Matthew Popp
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Star Writing… One Star Product
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2023
Verified Purchase
FANTASTIC book. Maggie Nelson writes candidly and fiercely about what it means to be queer, to be a family, and to be human. I cannot recommend this book enough. HOWEVER, the book I ordered and received from Amazon was printed incorrectly, with pages missing and ordered incorrectly. I would highly recommend buying this book elsewhere(Read: Support a local bookstore!)
Customer image
Matthew Popp
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Star Writing… One Star Product
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2023
FANTASTIC book. Maggie Nelson writes candidly and fiercely about what it means to be queer, to be a family, and to be human. I cannot recommend this book enough. HOWEVER, the book I ordered and received from Amazon was printed incorrectly, with pages missing and ordered incorrectly. I would highly recommend buying this book elsewhere(Read: Support a local bookstore!)
Images in this review
Customer image Customer image
Customer imageCustomer image
3 people found this helpful
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Tina S
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!!!!
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2015
Verified Purchase
Beautifully written! I was not ready for it to end and would like to see more from this talented author. Her memoir felt deeply personal. I loved how she talks about family and relationships. Her writing is very moving and I found her story to be deeply touching and heartfelt. She has an enormously rich vocabulary, writes with wisdom and grace, and totally captivates the reader. This is a gem of a memoir and I am left wanting more! I have already gifted 2 copies to friends and plan to continue to share this book as it is a timely and very important read.
7 people found this helpful
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J B
4.0 out of 5 stars I'm not the intended audience
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2020
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I read this with a book club, if it were not for the book club I would have never picked it up in the first place.

(I got the Kindle copy that lacks certain notations available in the print edition.)

This book seems to be a love letter to/about Maggie's partner, and the dependency of her own identity on her partner's identity. At times it's very vulnerable and honest, at other times it's insufferably pretentious and inaccessible. All in all, Maggie is a very gifted writer and extremely smart but lives in worlds of academia/gender identity that don't intersect with mine enough to fully connect with this text. If I was a gender studies/psych major I probably would have liked it a lot more.

I probably won't read another Maggie Nelson book but I'm glad I can say I've read one.
19 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Jessica W.
5.0 out of 5 stars Top notch book and seller
Reviewed in Canada on May 15, 2021
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Awesome book! Came brand new and it's such a good read. The subject matter is blunt and poetic in such a beautiful way. I feel like members of any community can benefit from this read.
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Katharine Abbott
5.0 out of 5 stars Read multiple times
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2022
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Bought this several years ago and it's the one book I repeatedly come back to.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Buen libro
Reviewed in Mexico on May 29, 2020
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Muy buen libro, muy recomendable, llegó a tiempo.
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Rashi BHardwaj
5.0 out of 5 stars I love Maggie Smith.
Reviewed in India on January 19, 2020
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Easily my favourite book from 2019.
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Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars Yes! Lesen
Reviewed in Germany on February 4, 2018
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Tolle Denkerin, ein
Vergnügen ihren Gedankengängen zu folgen! Sehr anregend und bereichernd, auch für meinen englischen Wortschatz;-)
Und wie erfrischend undogmatisch!
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