MixedThe MillionsThe success of Laing’s book is that it doesn’t require the reader to know much about — or even to be particularly interested in — the New York art world. It’s more about the people that populate it and the stories that make them who they are. The Lonely City draws on social science, gay culture, AIDS history, and the influence of technology, weaving in snippets of memoir. Laing’s prose is elegant and concise, with a breath of Joan Didion...
Sara Majka
PositiveThe RumpusMajka is skilled at these quiet renderings of lonely wandering. She doesn’t portray movement as simple escapism; she examines why movement offers the promise of escape ... the stories give off a very tired energy. It’s not that the writing or the stories are tired, but that the narrator is. Like in a Kundera novel, the weight of all these lives add up, making for an emotional toll I found hard to take in large doses. I’d read a story or two, then have to put the book down and come back to it later. In this respect Cities I’ve Never Lived In is too compassionate toward its narrator—it never lets us forget her deep-down loneliness. But in its best moments, the collection is ruthless, depicting 'what happens when what makes life possible disappears.' Like a homeless cat that must learn to survive, all we can do is move on.
