Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Death'
The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing
10 reviews
alyssapusateri's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
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
renicula's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Terminal illness, Death, and Emotional abuse
klor's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
A character study of loneliness weaved through American artists and art history. There's a lot of love that Laing put in this book that just hits you in the chest despite the notion of loneliness getting repetitive sometimes. Now I have new artists to check out, it's almost inspiring how everyone battles their own loneliness in different ways
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, and Sexual assault
allthatjazz's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, and Homophobia
savvylit's review against another edition
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
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Violence, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Death, and Sexual assault
tiagoalves's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
1.25
This book started well, fizzled out in the blink of an eye, and then ended horribly.
The blurb, that I read a few years ago, drew me in. Its first chapter, describing loneliness as a city in itself and beginning to explore that feeling in a city as born out of separation but also exposure was fantastic. Then Laing went into the biographical content that mostly built this book, rather than the memoir I was expecting alongside the study of loneliness in art.
We learn about the lives of Hopper, Warhol, Wojnarowicz, Solanas, Darger, and so on, but what we read is all very surface-level. It goes on interminable tangents that don’t seem to relate at all with the main point the book promises us, only then to fail miserably in considering the many nuances of loneliness, cowering solely behind the word ‘lonely’ and never having the boldness to explore anything else for over 250 pages.
This was researched, but the thing is that you can tell it was researched, and not in a good way. It reads as if Laing had googled ‘lonely’ and ‘new york’ and created an amalgamation of the results and divided them into chapters. The art analysis is paradoxically shallow and generic, while also being over-explained and too drawn out.
The problem is that Laing seems to promise to set out in one direction through the main road, but she chooses to go someplace else and uses a shortcut. She pours over an artist’s life for over 30 pages and then suddenly remembers “oh right, I have to relate this to loneliness and to me somehow” so she decides to say “this is why he was lonely and this is the same way I felt a few years after in the same street where he was once” and then dips. These short allusions to loneliness and to her own experience quickly started to feel like a cop out from actually reflecting on loneliness by herself—she resorted a bit too much to quotes from her sources and ended up not sharing much more than her generic, vague, and not too bound opinions.
Shout out to chapter six, which dealt with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, for being the best chapter in the book, but it couldn’t save this book.
The blurb, that I read a few years ago, drew me in. Its first chapter, describing loneliness as a city in itself and beginning to explore that feeling in a city as born out of separation but also exposure was fantastic. Then Laing went into the biographical content that mostly built this book, rather than the memoir I was expecting alongside the study of loneliness in art.
We learn about the lives of Hopper, Warhol, Wojnarowicz, Solanas, Darger, and so on, but what we read is all very surface-level. It goes on interminable tangents that don’t seem to relate at all with the main point the book promises us, only then to fail miserably in considering the many nuances of loneliness, cowering solely behind the word ‘lonely’ and never having the boldness to explore anything else for over 250 pages.
This was researched, but the thing is that you can tell it was researched, and not in a good way. It reads as if Laing had googled ‘lonely’ and ‘new york’ and created an amalgamation of the results and divided them into chapters. The art analysis is paradoxically shallow and generic, while also being over-explained and too drawn out.
The problem is that Laing seems to promise to set out in one direction through the main road, but she chooses to go someplace else and uses a shortcut. She pours over an artist’s life for over 30 pages and then suddenly remembers “oh right, I have to relate this to loneliness and to me somehow” so she decides to say “this is why he was lonely and this is the same way I felt a few years after in the same street where he was once” and then dips. These short allusions to loneliness and to her own experience quickly started to feel like a cop out from actually reflecting on loneliness by herself—she resorted a bit too much to quotes from her sources and ended up not sharing much more than her generic, vague, and not too bound opinions.
Shout out to chapter six, which dealt with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, for being the best chapter in the book, but it couldn’t save this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Rape, Bullying, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Abandonment
aviruri's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Loneliness is personal, and it is also political. Loneliness is collective; it is a city. As to how to inhabit it, there are no rules and nor is there any need to feel shame, only to remember that the pursuit of individual happiness does not trump or excuse our obligations to each another. We are in this together, this accumulation of scars, this world of objects, this physical and temporary heaven that so often takes on the countenance of hell. What matters is kindness; what matters is solidarity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, and Alcoholism
ohlhauc's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness
aidrielle's review against another edition
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.
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
tasho's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the premise of connecting loneliness to depictions in art would be pretentious and wishy-washy, but it’s actually deeply insightful. Olivia discusses connections to feelings of loneliness and social isolation to class, identity, mental illness, upbringing, into ways that I found fascinating but also quite sad. It gave me great perspective into the art scene as well as lived experiences of the lower class and what barriers are enforced between us by the structures of classism, capitalism and gentrification. Strongly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual violence and Mental illness
Minor: Death
More...