Reviews

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

drlark's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

3.5

 Hmmm. 3.5 stars. I liked it? We follow a grieving widow as she travels around the country researching and writing the biography of her deceased wife, an artist and cultural icon in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. At the same time, we're given glimpses of an alternate America, one where the south seceded again in 1945, erected a wall, and existed in isolation for 50 years as a fascist theocracy. This all in reaction to Emma Goldman (!) becoming a prominent political figure.

I adore this premise. I love the spec-fic aspects of this story -- how does this alternate history and its fundamentally destabilizing effects influence the characters and the story? But it's also the story of this relationship, of our narrator, a journalist who lost herself, and of her wife, a mysterious woman who I can only conclude, is an a%&hole. Their relationship, and this woman's life feel like a combination of Carmen Maria Machado's In The Dream House and John Waters' Pink Flamingos. I don't tend to like books about terrible famous people being terrible and famous, so I was much more interested in the world and in the narrator's journey and found all the details of the wife's career and the famous people she knew to be obnoxious. Overall, though, I liked this quite a bit. 

kvanhook92's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

njc0620's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

rkonowitz's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.75

mcordell's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

heelturn2's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

weird and totally fascinating… alt history southern us fascist secession as the setup for alt history of contemporary (US) art. there are so many layers here, to the world & the characters. idk if I’ve read something like this before - really engrossing and dark and also imo very funny in a very understated way! like

“Brian Eno transitioned in this timeline”

is both very cool and extremely funny to me as a throwaway detail, as is

David Bowie calling out X for saying fascist sympathizer shit he said irl

… soo many implications to consider too - like

I’m literally just realizing that AIDS is never mentioned, & likely wasn’t a public health crisis at all in this world because of the drastic differences in politics happening here…!

really compelling characters; they are unknowable and mysterious in interesting real ways, they do things that make you wonder “why?” while feeling coherent & consistent. the (fictional & real) art discussed is actually interesting, & X feels like exactly the sort of artist you might have a complicated personal relationship with the work of. C is a good narrator - likeable but flawed, comes up short in ways you think about… and that you’re sure she’d think about too. I related to her kind of painfully at times tbh, yikes!!! she (& the author, in different ways) withhold answers very satisfyingly. slated for a reread sometime in the future & I’d love to read Catherine Lacey’s other stuff.

tashalostinbooks's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

abbiesreading's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

jmosser's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ecarter18's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

this was a very weird book. not in a bad way necessarily, but I don't think I was the right audience for it. wish there could have been more about the alternate US.