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A review by oashackelford
The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing
2.0
The Lonely City, by Olivia Liang, is an exploration of the feeling of loneliness through the lens of artists and the city of New York as well as the author's own experiences. The book meanders from thought to thought exploring how loneliness is shown in art. How photographs of bodies, sewn together fruit, and even large groups of people can look lonely and about how bouts of loneliness in the artists' lives inspired them to make the kinds of art they made.
This book is an interesting look at loneliness but the book gives the reader the strange sensation of feeling the author's own loneliness as they read the book. As they recount how each of the artists was alone in their own ways you get the feelings of being removed from society and how awful it must feel to want to connect to others without really knowing how.
I don't know if the author's intent was to engender empathy in the reader for people on the fringes of society, or if the intent was solely therapeutic for the author, but the book does make you want to reach out and touch someone because it feels isolating to read it.
I did not enjoy this book for myself because I didn't like feeling lonely every time I read it, but I do think it is incredibly well researched and written. I think that if you like art that inspires a lot of emotion and when writers infuse their work with their own experiences, then this will be a good read for you. I just didn't like how I felt while reading it.
This book is an interesting look at loneliness but the book gives the reader the strange sensation of feeling the author's own loneliness as they read the book. As they recount how each of the artists was alone in their own ways you get the feelings of being removed from society and how awful it must feel to want to connect to others without really knowing how.
I don't know if the author's intent was to engender empathy in the reader for people on the fringes of society, or if the intent was solely therapeutic for the author, but the book does make you want to reach out and touch someone because it feels isolating to read it.
I did not enjoy this book for myself because I didn't like feeling lonely every time I read it, but I do think it is incredibly well researched and written. I think that if you like art that inspires a lot of emotion and when writers infuse their work with their own experiences, then this will be a good read for you. I just didn't like how I felt while reading it.