The Lonely City: Adventures In The Art Of Being Alone

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism #1 Book of the Year from Brain Pickings Named a best book of the year by NPR, Newsweek, Slate, Pop Sugar, Marie Claire, Elle, Publishers Weekly, and Lit Hub A dazzling work of biography, memoir, and cultural criticism on the subject of loneliness, told through the lives of iconic artists, by the acclaimed author of The Trip to Echo Spring. When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her midthirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by the most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving from Edward Hopper?s Nighthawks to Andy Warhol?s Time Capsules, from Henry Darger?s hoarding to David Wojnarowicz?s AIDS activism, Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed. Humane, provocative, and moving, The Lonely City is a celebration of a strange and lovely state, adrift from the larger continent of human experience, but intrinsic to the very act of being alive. Review "A beautiful meander of a book" --Hanya Yanagihara, The New Yorker "An extraordinary more-than-memoir; a sort of memoir-plus-plus, partway between Helen MacDonald's H Is for Hawk and the diary of Virginia Woolf." --Maria Popova "Olivia Laing, in her new book, The Lonely City, picks up the topic of painful urban isolation and sets it down in many smart and oddly consoling places. She makes the topic her own. ... Perhaps the best praise I can give this book is to concur with Ms. Laing?s dedication: 'If you?re lonely, this one?s for you.' "?Dwight Garner,The New York Times"This book serves as both provocation and comfort, a secular prayer for those who are alone?meaning all of us."?The New York Times Book Review "One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction...compelling and original."?Harper's Bazaar "An uncommonly observant hybrid of memoir, history and cultural criticism... a book of extraordinary compassion and insight.??San Francisco Chronicle "Laing is an astute and consistently surprising culture critic who deeply identifies with her subjects' vulnerabilities... absolutely one of a kind."?Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "It's not easy to pull off switching between criticism and confession?and like Echo Spring, The Lonely City is an impressive and beguiling combination of autobiography and biography, a balancing act that Laing effortlessly performs. Her gift as a critic is her ability to imaginatively sympathize with her subject in a way that allows the art and life of the artist to go on radiating meaning after the book is closed."?Elle ??A lovely thing. Exceptionally skillful at changing gears, Ms. Laing moves fluently between memoir, biography (not just of her principal cast but of a large supporting one), art criticism and the fruits of her immersion in ?loneliness studies'...She writes about Darger and the rest with insight and empathy and about herself with a refreshing lack of exhibitionism.?Every page of The Lonely City exudes a disarming, deep-down fondness for humanity. ??The Wall Street Journal"Laing?s prose is elegant and concise, with a breath of Joan Didion.... In its interdisciplinary scope and mix of culture, theory, and memoir, The Lonely City brings to mind other nonfiction hits of recent years, books like Maggie Nelson?s The Argonauts or Leslie Jamison?s The Empathy Exams."?The Millions ?The Lonely City bristles with heart-piercing wisdom... It's a ghostly blueprint of urban loneliness ? an emotion that Laing calls ?a city in itself??that reminds us how loneliness can sometimes bring us together.??Jason Heller, NPR.org ?Laing?s meditation gradually gathers force into a manifesto, taking aim at the assumption of simple, unknowable 'mental illness' to explain the life and creative work of the outsider artist Henry Darger or of Solanas?or of Warho