Hardcover, 315 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 2016 by Picador.
What does it mean to be lonely? How do we live, if we're not intimately engaged with another human being? How do we connect with other people? Does technology draw us closer together or trap us behind screens?
When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between works and lives -- from Edward Hopper's Nighthawks to Andy Warhol's Time Capsules, from Henry Darger's hoarding to the depredations of the AIDS crisis -- Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed.
The first time I told a friend I was lonely was January 2020, and boy did I have no clue. It felt very confessional, like a shameful secret I had been harbouring. Some essays in the book really got that part about loneliness right. I wish this was more memoir and less art critique.
4.5 stars
What does it feel to be lonely?
In her wonderful and compelling book Olivia Laing explores the art of being alone. I was intrigued by the personalities and the relationships described in the book, how some people have to get involved, live in crowded and restlessness places because of their fear of isolation. As a person who value loneliness, this book made me think about what kind of distance should keep between each other.
Read the fulll review at Athena Reads
A work of pure art
