The Lonely City by Olivia Laing audiobook review – solitude and creativity in Manhattan

What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, The Lonely City by Olivia Laing audiobook review – solitude and creativity in Manhattan, Tilda Swinton makes her audiobook debut with this landmark study of how New York artists from Edward Hopper to Andy Warhol have lived with loneliness It is a decade since Olivia Laing published The Lonely City , a blend of memoir and cultural analysis on the isolation of urban living. Laing – who is non-binary – had moved to Manhattan following a love affair that ended abruptly. Once there, they were taken aback at their feelings of isolation. Laing discovered “you can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people”. The author’s attempts to navigate these difficult feelings are threaded through a series of artist portraits examining the connection between loneliness and creativity. There is Edward Hopper, famed for his paintings featuring lone figures seated in cafes and diners, and Henry Darger,

Context

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What to watch

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Source

Primary source: The Lonely City by Olivia Laing audiobook review – solitude and creativity in Manhattan via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.