‘Brilliant, astonishing’ Chris Kraus
‘Sly, brilliant, philosophically acute, bitingly funny, and a pure joy to spend hours with’ Lauren Groff
When X – the iconoclastic artist, musician and writer – dies suddenly, CM, her widow, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. The story will lead her deep into the Southern Territory – a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the USA after World War II – before revealing the full weight of X’s secrets, and the depth of her betrayal.
‘A thriller set against a backdrop of political intrigue, an elegy, an art world satire and a thought experiment too… One of the most interesting books you’ll read this year…’ Financial Times
‘A profound novel about love and what it can license, about the toll – and maybe the con – of genius’ Garth Greenwell
‘Sprawling and ambitious… Strange and dystopian… This is a major novel’ New York Times
Format: Paperback
Pages: 416
Imprint: Granta Books
Publication date: 30/07/2024
Biography of X
By Catherine Lacey
Review by Ray
Written as a non-fiction biography of a fictional artist in an alternate USA, this book is a wild experiment in history-making, story-telling and the relationship between fact and fiction.
The what-ifs and imagined realities (as well as what/who makes it into the story versus what is left out) in these pages are ripe for discussion and feel very relevant in the increasingly divided world we live in now: And the relationship between X and the ‘author’ is a richly observed exploration of power and control, art and ownership. A fascinating, cleverly constructed read.
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