The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

After moving to New York in her thirties because of a romantic relationship, Olivia Lang ends up alone in a huge, foreign city. This most humiliating life experience fascinated her more and more, and she begins exploring the lonely city through art. Examining cases of Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Klaus Nomi, Henry Darger, and David Wojnarowicz, the celebrated essayist and critic studies exercises in the art of loneliness, analyzes its images and the socio-psychological nature of alienation. Human, daring, and deeply insightful, “Lonely City” is a book about the spaces between people, about things that connect people, about sexuality, morality, and the miraculous possibilities of art. It is an investigation of the unknown and enchanting state of being cut off from the vast continent of human life experience—yet deeply inherent in life itself.