The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone - Hardcover

Laing, Olivia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1782111239 ISBN 13: 9781782111238

Publisher: Canongate Books, 2016

Synopsis

What does it mean to be lonely? How do we live, if we're not intimately engaged with another human being? How do we connect with other people? When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Fascinated by the experience, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between works and lives - from Edward Hopper's Nighthawks to Andy Warhol's Time Capsules, from Henry Darger's hoarding to the depredations of the AIDS crisis - 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 deeply moving, The Lonely City is about the spaces between people and the things that draw them together, about sexuality, mortality and the magical possibilities of art. It's 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.

About this title

Review

"

Praise for The Trip to Echo Spring:

'Olivia Laing's writing is beautifully modulated, her tone knowledgeable yet intimate. She can evoke a state of mind as gracefully as she evokes a landscape

" (HILARY MANTEL)

"I loved The Trip to Echo Spring. It's a beautiful book that has stayed with me in a profound way" (NICK CAVE)

"Original, brave and very moving. Laing's way of looking at a natural world that is free from human faults repeatedly prompts something like the "spiritual awakening" AA attendees hope for. Her insights shine with beauty yet are shaded by sympathy and compassion" (Observer)

"Laing's analysis of the complex addiction is consistently shrewd. But what makes The Trip to Echo Spring truly worthwhile is that she, like those she writes about, is a terrific writer" (John Sutherland The Times)

"Beguiling and incisive" (New York Times)

"Laing's prose is lucid and exuberant. She rejects the opportunities for humour, although some of the stories are very funny indeed; and traces rather than interrogates her subjects. She knows them intimately and the result is a thoughtful study, part literary biography, part travel memoir" (Financial Times)

"Beguiling, beautifully written... brilliant and original" (John Carey The Sunday Times)

"Laing is a brilliant wordsmith and this is a beautifully accomplished book" (Frances Spalding Independent)

"Full of insight, compassion and unexpected beauty" (Guardian)

"It's deliciously evocative, Laing's melancholic and lyrical style conjuring the location, before effortlessly segueing into medical facts about alcoholism, the effects on the lives of each writer, and well-chosen passages from their work. This is a highly accomplished book, and highly recommended" (The List)

"A triumphant exercise in creative reading in which diary entries, letters, poems, stories and plays are woven together to explore deep, interconnected themes of dependence, denial and self-destructiveness. It is a testimony to this book's compelling power that having finished it, I immediately wanted to read it again" (Scotland on Sunday)

"While there is no straightforward answer to why writers drink, Laing explores the causes in admirable detail and astonishingly good prose that rivals the output of the authors she is writing about" (Observer)

"Laing is a fine and stylish travel writer, with a sharp eye for passing detail and an acute ear for oddly amusing conversations" (Gordon Bowker Independent: i & Radar)

"Laing's descriptions of the American landscape, as she travels south from New York to New Orleans and Key West, and then north up to St Paul and Port Angeles, are a joy to read. She has a keen eye for the details of American streets... She captures the discomfort of long train journeys... and evokes the smells and sounds of an unknown city. A thunderstorm is recorded in intimate detail; the snatched conversations of fellow travellers are threaded into her narrative... there is much to enjoy in this trip across America. In Ms Laing's hands these famously complicated men become fragile, and terribly human" (The Economist)

"Laing writes so well, so seductively in fact, that this deconstructed way of pursuing a story works brilliantly again" --Nick Cave

"A charming and gusto-driven look at the alcoholic insanity of six famous authors: John Cheever, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver" (New York Times, 100 Notable Books of 2014) --New York Times

"Haunting . . . a moving, troubling, gorgeously written book" (Independent on Sunday, Paperbacks of the Year) --Independent on Sunday

Book Description

A dazzling investigation into loneliness, art and the modern city from the critically acclaimed author of The Trip to Echo Spring

Edition details

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1782111239
• ISBN 13: 9781782111238
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 336