"The Lonely City" by Olivia Laing

An audio book.

The author, lonely while she was in New York, studies the loneliness of city dwellers by looking at the lives of 4 depictors of loneliness, two of whom I knew about - Warhol and Hopper - and two I didn't - David Wojnarowicz and Henry Darger. Solanas (who tried to kill Warhol) gets coverage too, and Greta Garbo's mentioned (followed once by Warhol in the street; followed and photographed by another man for a decade). She mentions "Maskenfreiheit", and the joy of seeing without being seen. She looks at "Vertigo" and Harlow's attachment experiments.

Her mother was gay. Outed in the 80s she had to leave the village where she lived. The author writes that she felt like a gay boy, rather jealous of the ease of life at the Piers.

She mentions Klein's views on loneliness, the lost parts of Self, the value of art in putting things back together. Then she writes about how illness (terminal illness, AIDS) connects with loneliness. She spends hours online, growing lonely. Online dating engenders further identity/loneliness issues.

In the 1990s Josh Harris, "The Warhol of the web", understood "the power of loneliness as a driving force, and the fear of intimacy.

Stitching, gluing and repairing all become related to lonliness. The author comes to realise that being in pieces doesn't mean that one has failed.

Other reviews

• James Lasdun (There is always a question of balance between reticence and disclosure regarding the personal element of this kind of book. It is hard to please everyone, but to my mind Laing errs a little on the side of reticence)
• Molly McCloskey (I do have one complaint about this otherwise wonderful book, which is that it focuses almost exclusively on male artists)