Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing

12 reviews

alyssapusateri's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Addiction, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Pedophilia

owenwilsonbaby's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

“God I was sick of carrying around a woman’s body, or rather everything that attaches to it.”

Wow! My copy is dog-eared from the countless quotes I wanted to remember and include here. What a beautiful and articulate piece of writing about analysing and challenging loneliness and what a delicate and finely-wrought talent for storytelling. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Drug abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Abandonment, Child abuse, Cursing, Grief, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Violence

allthatjazz's review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

savvylit's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

"...The lonelier a person gets, the less adept they become at navigating social currents. Loneliness grows around them, like mould or fur, a prophylactic that inhibits contact, no matter how badly contact is desired. Loneliness is accretive, extending and perpetuating itself."

Where The Lonely City excels is in its biographical portraits of lonely artists. Beginning with Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol, Laing also compassionately portrays the lives of two lesser-known artists: Henry Darger and David Wojnarowicz. Laing's continued discussion of loneliness' relationship to these artists' creativity and community is extremely fascinating. The Lonely City constantly pushes readers to consider all the ways that someone can feel lonely or ostracized - even in a densely populated urban setting. Using the four aforementioned artists, she creates a very moving meditation on cultural normativity and it's inexorable connection to loneliness.

All that being said, I do think this book was a tad bloated. Like Laing's own walks around New York City described in this book, The Lonely City is quite meandering. I think this book would have benefited from focusing purely on biography and drawing conclusions from the artists' lives. However, Laing injects several random-seeming mentions of her own life which throw off the overall flow. For instance, she mentions a devastating breakup that she experienced - and then never discusses it again. I know it's definitely more than possible to weave personal anecdotes into biography. But in the case of The Lonely City, it is just not well-executed

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Violence, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Death, and Sexual assault

clarabooksit's review against another edition

I’ve been ruminating on language, its fluidity and possibilities. How magnificent and frustrating is it that words can mean so many different things? 

 

Which brings me to this book: THE LONELY CITY: ADVENTURES IN THE ART OF BEING ALONE by Olivia Laing. I picked it up because of its title. It’s a fantastic title. 

 

I thought it was going to be a collection of essays about loneliness, primarily the author’s own, and the myriad ways that it transpires and affects our lives. I thought the focal point was going to be New York City as one of the most populous cities in the world and also one of the loneliest. I thought there was going to be adventure, nuance, well-crafted sentences and poignancy. 

 

What I did not expect was that the operative word in the title was “art.” 

 

This book is about lonely (white, male) artists who lived in NYC. (I didn’t finish the book, so it’s possible there’s diversity somewhere in it but I wouldn’t bet on it.)

 

While some of my expectations were sort of met—nuance, poignancy, a great deal of loneliness—I find myself disappointed. Is this my own fault? Entirely. But that title set up so much and my interpretation was all wrong. 

 

Does that make this a bad book? No, of course not. Does it make it not for me? Mostly yes. This might be callous but misunderstood male artists are not my thing. (And they’re nearly all male—the few women are defined by their relationships to said male artists.)

 

This is well-crafted—Laing weaves history, art, biography and social critique beautifully—and if you’re interested in the art world, particularly the latter half of the 20th century in the U.S., this might be for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Misogyny, and Addiction

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Rape, Sexual violence, and Bullying

maureen's review

informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Mental illness, Homophobia, Gun violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, and Chronic illness

bonnie's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia

ohlhauc's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

A clear and emotional look at loneliness from different angles, with a focus on its expression through the telling of four artists working in New York through the mid- and late- twentieth century - Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, and Henry Darger. There is also a bit of memoir as the author discusses her own relationship with loneliness while living in New York, but the memoir element definitely takes a back seat to the social commentary, art criticism, and author profiles.

One of the strongest parts is that the art criticism is accessible so you don't need to know a lot about art, especially art and photography, to understand the commentary. The author guides the reader by not only explaining the works but also their context and impact. Another strong part is how the author continued to define loneliness with deeper levels of meaning rather than relying on one definition, and doing so by looking at other forces like privilege, oppression, class structures, stigma, and more. You won't see much discussion on mental health, which was an element that I felt was missing, but the other social forces were compelling, especially during the sections on forced institutionalization and the AIDS epidemic.

If you're interested in art criticism, in books about the AIDS epidemic, in loneliness in general, or how society can fail people who are different - this book is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

grtwrrn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Rape, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, and Homophobia

aidrielle's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

olivia laing really dragged out some of my deepest, most shameful thoughts and displayed them all out here in her book, huh? reading this was unexpectedly comforting at times because, idk, misery loves company i guess. there's really something about having someone put your thoughts and emotions into such eloquent words. at the same time though, i'd caution everyone to really evaluate your current state of mind first before you dive into this book. it's extremely visceral, and there were times when i had to stop reading because it was just too much. reading this book about loneliness during one of the loneliest periods of human existence in the past few years isn't something to be taken lightly. this book was incredible but, idk, just really think about whether you can handle it or not before you start reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Violence