"It feels fairly rare for a novel to be hugely intelligent
and moving and fun in equal measure, but with Biography of X,
Catherine Lacey somehow--magically--makes the nearly impossible look
easy." --Lauren Groff
From one of our
fiercest stylists, a roaring epic chronicling the life, times, and
secrets of a notorious artist.
When
X--an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing
shape-shifter--falls dead in her office, her widow, CM, wild with
grief and refusing everyone's good advice, hurls herself into writing
a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a
crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life
story. Not even CM knows where X was born, and in her quest to find
out, she opens a Pandora's box of secrets, betrayals, and
destruction. All the while, she immerses herself in the history of
the Southern Territory, a fascist theocracy that split from the rest
of the country after World War II, and which finally, in the present
day, is being forced into an uneasy reunification.
A
masterfully constructed literary adventure complete with original
images assembled by X's widow, Biography
of X follows CM as she
traces X's peripatetic trajectory over decades, from Europe to the
ruins of America's divided territories, and through her
collaborations and feuds with everyone from Bowie and Waits to Sontag
and Acker. At last, when she finally understands the scope of X's
defining artistic project, CM realizes her wife's deceptions were far
crueler than she imagined.
Pulsing
with suspense and intellect while blending nonfiction and fiction,
Biography of X
is a roaring epic that plumbs the depths of grief, art, and love. In
her most ambitious novel yet, Catherine Lacey pushes her craft to its
highest level, introducing us to an unforgettable character who, in
her tantalizing mystery, shows us the fallibility of the stories we
craft for ourselves.
