Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Yalnız Şehir by Olivia Laing

9 reviews

alyssapusateri's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

effievee's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

“God I was sick of carrying around a woman’s body, or rather everything that attaches to it.”

Wow! My copy is dog-eared from the countless quotes I wanted to remember and include here. What a beautiful and articulate piece of writing about analysing and challenging loneliness and what a delicate and finely-wrought talent for storytelling. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

savvylit's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

"...The lonelier a person gets, the less adept they become at navigating social currents. Loneliness grows around them, like mould or fur, a prophylactic that inhibits contact, no matter how badly contact is desired. Loneliness is accretive, extending and perpetuating itself."

Where The Lonely City excels is in its biographical portraits of lonely artists. Beginning with Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol, Laing also compassionately portrays the lives of two lesser-known artists: Henry Darger and David Wojnarowicz. Laing's continued discussion of loneliness' relationship to these artists' creativity and community is extremely fascinating. The Lonely City constantly pushes readers to consider all the ways that someone can feel lonely or ostracized - even in a densely populated urban setting. Using the four aforementioned artists, she creates a very moving meditation on cultural normativity and it's inexorable connection to loneliness.

All that being said, I do think this book was a tad bloated. Like Laing's own walks around New York City described in this book, The Lonely City is quite meandering. I think this book would have benefited from focusing purely on biography and drawing conclusions from the artists' lives. However, Laing injects several random-seeming mentions of her own life which throw off the overall flow. For instance, she mentions a devastating breakup that she experienced - and then never discusses it again. I know it's definitely more than possible to weave personal anecdotes into biography. But in the case of The Lonely City, it is just not well-executed
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

clarabooksit's review against another edition

Go to review page

I’ve been ruminating on language, its fluidity and possibilities. How magnificent and frustrating is it that words can mean so many different things? 
 
Which brings me to this book: THE LONELY CITY: ADVENTURES IN THE ART OF BEING ALONE by Olivia Laing. I picked it up because of its title. It’s a fantastic title. 
 
I thought it was going to be a collection of essays about loneliness, primarily the author’s own, and the myriad ways that it transpires and affects our lives. I thought the focal point was going to be New York City as one of the most populous cities in the world and also one of the loneliest. I thought there was going to be adventure, nuance, well-crafted sentences and poignancy. 
 
What I did not expect was that the operative word in the title was “art.” 
 
This book is about lonely (white, male) artists who lived in NYC. (I didn’t finish the book, so it’s possible there’s diversity somewhere in it but I wouldn’t bet on it.)
 
While some of my expectations were sort of met—nuance, poignancy, a great deal of loneliness—I find myself disappointed. Is this my own fault? Entirely. But that title set up so much and my interpretation was all wrong. 
 
Does that make this a bad book? No, of course not. Does it make it not for me? Mostly yes. This might be callous but misunderstood male artists are not my thing. (And they’re nearly all male—the few women are defined by their relationships to said male artists.)
 
This is well-crafted—Laing weaves history, art, biography and social critique beautifully—and if you’re interested in the art world, particularly the latter half of the 20th century in the U.S., this might be for you.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

maudhee's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

maureen's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.75

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tasho's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the premise of connecting loneliness to depictions in art would be pretentious and wishy-washy, but it’s actually deeply insightful. Olivia discusses connections to feelings of loneliness and social isolation to class, identity, mental illness, upbringing, into ways that I found fascinating but also quite sad. It gave me great perspective into the art scene as well as lived experiences of the lower class and what barriers are enforced between us by the structures of classism, capitalism and gentrification. Strongly recommend.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

julied's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings