Biography of X

A Novel

by

416 pages

English language

Published April 7, 2023 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ISBN:
978-0-374-60617-6
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2 stars (2 reviews)

From one of our fiercest stylists, a roaring epic chronicling the life, times, and secrets of a notorious artist.

When X—an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter—falls dead in her office, her widow, wild with grief and refusing everyone’s good advice, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM, her wife, knew where X had been born, and in her quest to find out, she opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, betrayals, and destruction. All the while, she immerses herself in the history of the Southern Territory, a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the country after World War II, as it is finally, in the present day, forced into an uneasy reunification.

2 editions

reviewed Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

Review of 'Biography of X' on 'Goodreads'

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I pushed to page 146 of this one before I stopped. I kept going because I enjoyed Lacey’s Pew so much, but I have to finally throw in the towel. I’m super disappointed.

I enjoyed the very beginning which introduced me to Lucca and the annoying Mr. Smith. I also enjoyed hearing how Lucca and X met and Lucca’s initial foray into X’s past. But as the story goes on it becomes, for me, incredibly tedious. The dystopian Southern Territory gets over explained and its extremes harder to swallow. The intentional inclusion of sources about a range of female artists lumped together to make X made it feel meta in a way that was inaccessible to me. Most of the details included make this “biography” feel dry and boring instead of compelling.

Such a sad dnf

avatar for amalia

rated it

4 stars

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