The Book Reader: ‘The Lonely City’

Parul Sehgal of The New York Times Book Review checks out Olivia Laing’s “The Lonely City” in NY1’s The Book Reader.

Olivia Laing’s The Lonely City is an evocative new book exploring the role of loneliness in life in New York in the 21^st century and in the work of four iconic American artists.

Recently heartbroken, Laing, a British writer and critic, moved to New York in her 30s, living in a succession of cheap sublets. She is both pained and entranced by her loneliness and rebounds, as it were, by falling in love with her adopted city and immersing herself in the work of some of the great artists of solitude including the painter Edward Hopper.

The Lonely City was reviewed in the New York Times Book Review by Ada Calhoun who wrote, “Reading this book made me feel aloneness more acutely, but also exposed its value. As Laing describes finding consolation in the work of artists, so this book serves as both provocation and comfort, a secular prayer for those who are alone — meaning all of us.”

Find more reviews of new books in the New York Times Book Review at nytimes.com/books.