A review by heelturn2
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

weird and totally fascinating… alt history southern us fascist secession as the setup for alt history of contemporary (US) art. there are so many layers here, to the world & the characters. idk if I’ve read something like this before - really engrossing and dark and also imo very funny in a very understated way! like

“Brian Eno transitioned in this timeline”

is both very cool and extremely funny to me as a throwaway detail, as is

David Bowie calling out X for saying fascist sympathizer shit he said irl

… soo many implications to consider too - like

I’m literally just realizing that AIDS is never mentioned, & likely wasn’t a public health crisis at all in this world because of the drastic differences in politics happening here…!

really compelling characters; they are unknowable and mysterious in interesting real ways, they do things that make you wonder “why?” while feeling coherent & consistent. the (fictional & real) art discussed is actually interesting, & X feels like exactly the sort of artist you might have a complicated personal relationship with the work of. C is a good narrator - likeable but flawed, comes up short in ways you think about… and that you’re sure she’d think about too. I related to her kind of painfully at times tbh, yikes!!! she (& the author, in different ways) withhold answers very satisfyingly. slated for a reread sometime in the future & I’d love to read Catherine Lacey’s other stuff.