The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

This book will be in my collection til the day I die. There is so much truth and depth in the writing. As someone who has not delved into the world of art history, or criticism, I found my self completely intrigued by the artists spoken about and amazed how unaware I was of most of it. I'm impressed with the author's thinking and perspective on the brutality of loneliness. It's so darkly refreshing to know how many great minds suffer in this complexly cruel world, and somehow use that pain to make works of art. I too live in NY and am saddened and appalled by the changes in this once really interesting, artistic city that has become a playground for the very wealthy and lost so much in the process. A compelling read and quite educational. I also can't stop watching Klaus Nomi sing "Lightning Strikes" on youtube.

Perhaps one of the best books I've ever read. I think the author ran away with herself when it came to deductions. It's one of those rare books that has me digging further. It is illuminating me into artists I've never heard of before and made me realize how creative some people have been in response to the abusive childhoods. Laing is a good writer. Can't wait to read more of her writing.

I am an artist and a loner, even when surrounded by people, so the concept of this book was appealing to me. The author relates her journey of being alone in NYC after a nasty break-up, and researches the lives of artists and other loners to explore how they expressed loneliness. While the subject sounds depressing, anyone who has had moments (or lifetimes) of feeling left out and ignored will connect to some of the people in this book. She focuses primarily on four artists, the most well known being Andy Warhol and Edward Hopper. The other two are David Wojnarowicz, a photographer in New York during the late 70's who would become a vocal AIDS activist, and Henry Darger, a janitor in Chicago who created a complex fantasy world of art and writing in his cramped apartment, hidden from everyone until after his death. The section on Hopper feels like the outlier here, as he seems more of a miserable curmudgeon that someone longing for connection. There are so few interviews from him that the author is challenged to flesh out the chapter; I found myself skipping paragraphs in the this section of the book due to the lack of solid information and too much speculation on what Hopper was really feeling when he created his imagery. The writing gets so much better after this, however, as the author finds connections through the material. There is much more information available on Andy Warhol, and I gained a better understanding of his creative process and personal anguish. The chapter on Henry Darger is fascinating and a bit creepy. Was he a child-like innocent or a perverted pedophile? He never acted on his ideas, so we don't know. The story of David Wojnarowicz is the most harrowing. Unwanted, abused, and turning tricks on the streets as a young teen he lived by his wits and managed to hash out a substantial career with his photography of the tattered New York of the 70's and 80's. The author ties David's story to the gay scene in New York at that time, the AIDS epidemic and subsequent fear-mongering that tore through that community, and Warhol's last years befriending the wild and destructive artist Jean Michel Basquiat. Laing's final observations are poignant and original. Highly recommended.

Stunningly written account not just of the author's experience with loneliness, but of how loneliness can be generative (and destructive) in the lives of artists, and how art is a sort of balm for loneliness. Laing (whose last book, TRIP TO ECHO SPRING, was also great) is a ravishing prose stylist, and her multi-pronged work bleeds memoir with criticism with a kind of fluidity and ease that really blows me away. This book is an advance for her--it's more raw, more painful and more lyrical than anything she's done, and it really gets under the skin. It was the kind of fully immersive reading experience I crave, and yes, I felt less lonely reading it. Laing is excellent company, and this book is essential reading.

i thought the book would be about her own experience in coming to New York and navigating it through the emotions and or experiences she would personally share.she starts out but then jumps to interpreting other fringe and or well known people...and interprets and according to her thoughts what she guesses at is their loneliness is through their life and work.. this began to be repetitive for me and for most of the fringe people, i don't find them interesting enough to spend chapters on. I would not recommend this book. disappointing I was hoping for real personal insights.

I'm glad I purchased this book rather than checked it out on Libby or from the library. I'm already dog-earing pages I want to come back to and re-think. The author very empathetically writes about some famous and almost famous New York people/persona's who are/were notable loners or alone, and not necessarily by their own choice. These multi-dimensional stories reveal the author's grasp on how to write about art and artists, human spirit, longings, and resilience, while also describing the New York City of the past (and maybe the present, since I'm only half-way through) in a visually stimulating way.Within the various narratives, this author weaves her own life into the stories, revealing just enough about herself to help the reader understand she knows what she's talking about. The personal interjections add an authentic and knowing touch which are subtle enough to not draw attention away from the focus of those she chose to write about. It's about US, not THEM. This book is not melancholy in any way, and it actually begins to crackle alive just a little ways in as the vivid word images put down roots, then blossom, within me.

Es todo un encanto leer este libro. Me acompañó durante la pandemia y con el corazón roto. Es un viaje que te ayuda a entender esos momentos donde quieres retraerte y además te dice que esto está bien, que muchas personas lo pasan, que la autora lo pasó, que artistas lo han pasado, pero también te muestra un poco las consecuencias de quedarte en ese estado. Una joya de libro.

Die Verbindung von Kunst und Einsamkeit anhand ausgewählter künstlerischer Positionen und biografischen Einblicken darzustellen, macht das Thema sehr nahbar und eröffnet den Einstieg in die Auseinandersetzung. Sehr lesenswert.

Läsaren får veta inifrån vad som hände i NY och människorna där. Stor medkänsla och stringens.,

Me ha encantado. La autora utiliza su propia soledad para explicar cómo diversos artistas (la mayoría visuales y la mayoría norteamericanos) expresaron su propia soledad a través del arte.

uma reflexão incrível e pungente sobre a potência criativa da solidão