Biography of X

A Novel

416 pages

Langue : English

Publié 7 avril 2023 par Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ISBN :
978-0-374-60617-6
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5 étoiles (1 critique)

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, 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, her wife, knew where X had been 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, as it is finally, in the present day, forced into an uneasy reunification.

6 editions

Brilliant work of fiction non-fiction

5 étoiles

This novel has pretty much everything: an alternate history setting that is at times omnipresent and a detail at others ; a mysterious contemporary artist ; many LGBTQ+ characters ; drama and love. It weaves brilliantly facts and fiction, real artists and writers (oh hello David Bowie & Susan Sontag) and completely imaginary characters (or are they?), and manages to be serious with obvious satirical elements. Very enjoyable.