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A review by makaelafauber
The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing
3.0
After moving to New York City for a relationship that ends before she even arrives, Olivia Laing experiences intense loneliness and isolation that pushes her to make contact with others through unconventional means: art. She researches various artists who, like her, lived in New York City and experienced the unique loneliness that comes with living in such a large city: to be surrounded by so many people yet feel so alone and unable to reach out and make contact.
I greatly enjoyed learning about her artists of focus, namely Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, Henry Darger, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Each felt the isolation of New York City and, to varying degrees, used it as inspiration for their work. Laing expertly weaves their histories with psychological research about loneliness to show not only why these artists felt it so strongly, but also why loneliness is not something to feel ashamed of even though it is so stigmatized in society. She also illustrates why loneliness is a compounding disease: once one feels lonely, they are less likely to a) reach out to others for fear of further rejection and b) be reached out to by others because of our intense fear of loneliness, how it almost seems contagious.
That said, I gave this book 3/5 stars because I don’t believe it lived up to its potential or even what the synopsis made it out to be. The synopsis depicts The Lonely City as a memoir about Olivia Laing’s encounter with loneliness and how she used art as a tool to connect with others who had felt the same isolation. Instead, the book is mainly research based, and its tone is more clinical than I had hoped. I think the book would be more impactful had Laing written it strictly as a series of essays or as a full blown memoir. In the current limbo-like state, neither fully essay nor memoir, it misses the mark.
I greatly enjoyed learning about her artists of focus, namely Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, Henry Darger, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Each felt the isolation of New York City and, to varying degrees, used it as inspiration for their work. Laing expertly weaves their histories with psychological research about loneliness to show not only why these artists felt it so strongly, but also why loneliness is not something to feel ashamed of even though it is so stigmatized in society. She also illustrates why loneliness is a compounding disease: once one feels lonely, they are less likely to a) reach out to others for fear of further rejection and b) be reached out to by others because of our intense fear of loneliness, how it almost seems contagious.
That said, I gave this book 3/5 stars because I don’t believe it lived up to its potential or even what the synopsis made it out to be. The synopsis depicts The Lonely City as a memoir about Olivia Laing’s encounter with loneliness and how she used art as a tool to connect with others who had felt the same isolation. Instead, the book is mainly research based, and its tone is more clinical than I had hoped. I think the book would be more impactful had Laing written it strictly as a series of essays or as a full blown memoir. In the current limbo-like state, neither fully essay nor memoir, it misses the mark.