The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
Ratings28
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings28
Average rating3.7
"You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavor to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by thousands of strangers. The Lonely City is a roving cultural history of urban loneliness, centered on the ultimate city: Manhattan, that teeming island of gneiss, concrete, and glass. What does it mean to be lonely? How do we live, if we're not intimately involved with another human being? How do we connect with other people, particularly if our sexuality or physical body is considered deviant or damaged? Does technology draw us closer together or trap us behind screens? Olivia Laing explores these questions by travelling deep into the work and lives of some of the century's most original artists, among them Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, Edward Hopper, Henry Darger and Klaus Nomi. Part memoir, part biography, part dazzling work of cultural criticism, The Lonely City is not just a map, but a celebration of the state of loneliness. It's a voyage out to a strange and sometimes lovely island, adrift from the larger continent of human experience, but visited by many - millions, say - of souls"--
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Updated from three to five stars in January 2023. Had to wait for the right time for this one.
Not exactly what I was expecting, but still a good listen.
It just didn't work for me, it wasn't what I wanted. The book spends a lot of time on four men who symbolize loneliness in different ways. Maybe this would have been interesting if I'd had an interest in any of them, but I didn't. The author did talk about her own encounter with loneliness, which was exactly what I was wanting, but too little of the book was given over to it. I had to concentrate intensely on each sentence to make a connection with it, and by page 75 my eyes were sliding down through the paragraphs, picking up a few sentences and not caring one way or another. This book was not for me.
My review is not indicative of the quality I found the book to be of, but rather my experience reading it. I had this book very very oft suggested to me and others in my demographic, so I really went in hoping to experience some company in the endeavor of loneliness. What I was not expecting, was the book to be about so much other than that. The vast majority of the book was written about the loneliness of several artists throughout the modern era and while those stories were at time captivating and interesting, for a lot of the book I felt like just saying...Okay, go off queen, but what are we saying all this for, again? I found the book lacked a focus that I was expecting from it. Again, while well written and articulated especially I just don't think this book was at all what I was expected and I unfortunately did not leave this feeling any better or relieved about loneliness.
