Crudo

Crudo by Olivia Laing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't really put into words why I liked this book so much. From the first paragraph which I finished and said to myself, that is a perfect paragraph, to the fever finish, I couldn't help but feel excited, even though it is mostly just a stream of consciousness written as third person but felt as first-person. I didn't even understand everything but the writing was just so electrifying. It also helped that it occurred during Trump's first weeks on the job in 2017 and so it perfectly mirrored the time I was reading it. I didn't know anything about Kathy Acker, who is the main character in this book (had she lived). Acker is known for being shockingly vulgar and this book is not that, but it does quote her often. My surface swimming didn't pull up any Acker writings that seemed much like Laing's, so without doing a deep dive I don't know where Laing got her writing style from, but like I said, it tickled me.

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She failed to get a death-grip on time

Memory showers desire, desire infects memory.

Imagine what a process it was to unnumb yourself, he said, to see it as it actually was.  That's the only reason to be an artist: to escape, to bear witness to this.

what is art if it's not plagiarising the world?