Culture
The Art of Urban Loneliness
In The Lonely City, Olivia Laing investigates her own experiences of isolation through the lens of visual art.
Loneliness is a feeling familiar to anyone who finds themselves adrift in an unfamiliar city, surrounded by unrecognized people.
But in her new book, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone (Picador, $26), the British writer Olivia Laing wonders if loneliness is also a physical space. She quotes the Beach Boys singer Dennis Wilson: “Loneliness is a very special place.”