The Last Days of Roger Federer And Other Endings

In this ingeniously structured meditation, Geoff Dyer sets his own encounter with late middle age against the last days and last works of writers, painters, musicians, and sports stars who've mattered to him throughout his life. With playful charm and penetrating intelligence, he considers Friedrich Nietzsche's breakdown in Turin, Bob Dylan's reinventions of old songs, J. M. W. Turner's proto-abstract paintings of blazing light, Jean Rhys's late-life resurgence, and John Coltrane's final works. Ranging from Burning Man to Beethoven, from Eve Babitz to William Basinski, and from Annie Dillard to Giorgio de Chirico, Dyer's study of last things is also a book about how to go on living with art and beauty—and the sudden rejuvenation offered by books, films, and music discovered late in life. It is an extended investigation into late style, the final achievements of artists, and the question of how to keep going even as the ability to do so diminishes.

Store Availability