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Olivia Laing

Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency Paperback – May 4, 2021

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“One of the finest writers of the new nonfiction” (Harper’s Bazaar) explores the role of art in our tumultuous modern era.

In this remarkable, inspiring collection of essays, acclaimed writer and critic Olivia Laing makes a brilliant case for why art matters, especially in the turbulent political weather of the twenty-first century.

Funny Weather brings together a career’s worth of Laing’s writing about art and culture, examining their role in our political and emotional lives. She profiles Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia O’Keeffe, reads Maggie Nelson and Sally Rooney, writes love letters to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, and explores loneliness and technology, women and alcohol, sex and the body. With characteristic originality and compassion, she celebrates art as a force of resistance and repair, an antidote to a frightening political time.

We’re often told that art can’t change anything. Laing argues that it can. Art changes how we see the world. It makes plain inequalities and it offers fertile new ways of living.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

May 4, 2021
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0393867390
ISBN-13

978-0393867398
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Olivia Laing is] a kind of cultural sage… an accidental literary grande dame of the emotional havoc wrought by late capitalism and digital disconnect."
― Hillary Kelly, Vulture

"Laing’s arts writing is sharp-minded, and her manner is generous toward both subject and reader."
― John Glassie, Washington Post

"Laing writes of her creative subjects in a winning, passionate voice that proves both soothing and galvanizing, especially amid a panic.… It’s not just art we need in an emergency, but writers, like Laing, who gently guide our eyes to what’s out there."
― Alina Cohen, Observer

"As exterior life shuts temporarily down, Funny Weather is an immensely useful reminder that new space can be intellectual as well as physical.… Laing animates her prose with concise, brainy descriptions of visual art.… Laing is a tremendously gifted genre-mixer, and her writing flourishes most when its topic requires her both to observe and to imagine.… Funny Weather is an invitation to Laing’s imaginary museum, where minds if not bodies meet, and where true hospitality resides."
― Lily Meyer, Hyperallergic

"Laing opens each piece with a deceptive ease [and] alights upon poetic insights.… [H]er light touch throughout these essays makes room for some stunning perceptions."
― A.V. Club

"A thought-provoking, inspiring collection that you can go back to whenever the weather takes a funny turn."
― Susannah Butter, Evening Standard

"Funny Weather gives the reader a tangible sense of the sprawling garden of work which Laing has planted. She is to the art world what David Attenborough is to nature: a worthy guide with both a macro and micro vision, fluent in her chosen tongue and always full of empathy and awe."
― Mia Colleran, Irish Times

"An incisive meditation on the value of heartfelt, messy art in our paranoid times."
― Telegraph

"A fine writer’s embrace of the artists who preceded her, friendly visits with their lives, and loving acknowledgement of their foundational contributions. A work of joy in recognition."
― Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict Is Not Abuse

"Like all great critics, Olivia Laing combines formidable intelligence with boundless curiosity and fabulous taste, but she also has a rare quality of intimacy; an ability to connect the reader to a work of art or literature (or for that matter a facet of life itself) with a directness that lights it up like nothing else. It’s why I read her."
― James Lasdun, author of Afternoon of a Faun

About the Author

Olivia Laing is the author of five acclaimed works of nonfiction, including The Lonely City and Funny Weather. Her first novel, Crudo, won the 2019 James Tait Black Prize. The recipient of the 2018 Windham-Campbell Prize in nonfiction, Laing lives in Suffolk, United Kingdom.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (May 4, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393867390
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393867398
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #159,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #190 in Artist & Architect Biographies
- #392 in Arts & Photography Criticism
- #619 in Art History (Books)

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4.5 305 ratings

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Olivia Laing is a widely acclaimed writer and critic. She's the author of six books, including To the River, The Trip to Echo Spring, and The Lonely City. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages. Her first novel, Crudo, was a Sunday Times bestseller and won the James Tait Black Prize. Laing writes on art, culture and politics for the Guardian, Financial Times and New York Times, among many other publications. Her collected writing on art, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency, was published in 2021. The recipient of the 2018 Windham-Campbell Prize in nonfiction, she lives in London, England. Her most recent book is Everybody: A Book About Freedom.

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4.5 out of 5

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matty creen

Great

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

Really my only criticism is I wish there were more people of color or trans people. Clear and crisp writing

4 people found this helpful

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Akinla

A great read.

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2021

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Touches on many aspects of O. Laing’s work. A summer or fall read for you favorite art nerd.

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Jeff LeVine

Olivia makes the case for the importance of art

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

Just a collection of articles written over not too long ago, mostly in the last five years, mostly on the subject of art, artists and authors. Most of the pieces are fairly short, sometimes too short - the best ones you definitely wish were longer. Most of the essays are finely written and insightful. There’s some overlap with her much better (from what I remember), earlier book, The Lonely City. There’s also some essays in this book that overlap with essays in this book, covering the same topic, or repeating the same anecdote, which is unfortunate. Laing also spends some time writing about very well covered 20th century artists, like Basquiat, Hockney and O’Keeffe, and while I thought those types of essays were well done, I’m not sure how much they were needed? I think I enjoyed the essays about authors and especially the more personal essays the best, like sitting to have her portrait painted by Chantal Joffe, or visiting Ali Smith. Over the course of the book, you really get a sense of Olivia Laing as a true believer in the power of art, but I gotta say, when I finished the book, I didn’t feel totally convinced myself.

10 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Learned new thoughts and people page after page...

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2020

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Tremendous writing; filled with great ideas and observations.

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Clark Goldsberry

Weird grease or oil on my copy?

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2020

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I love this book, and I think Olivia Laing is brilliant. However, my copy seems to be damaged, and when I opened the amazon box, the book appeared to be partially soaked in grease or oil of some sort? Very strange.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

I would advise against buying this book.

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is not what it appears to be. The description and title describe it as defending art in these insane times, illustrating it’s importance in the face of unprecedented absurdity. However, it’s just a series of essays on art or artists and does not go into what it claims to set out to achieve in the forward. Instead, it’s flat out boring. Not once was I moved by any of it and not once does she defend art. The only thing I gleaned from it was some the artists I hadn’t heard about that were showcased, yet it just made me want to experience those original works and not these mostly bland description. It’s like the author had compiled a few years worth of essays for the Guardian or the NYT’s and stuck a title on it that would sell more copies, replete with Wojnarowicz’s urgent photo piece on the cover. I’ve never bought a book where I feel as though I’ve been had, all for the price of nearly $30. Sucks. Don’t waste your money. She goes so far as to end it almost in cringe with “love letters” to the likes of Bowie and Arthur Russell, and somehow makes them boring. Maybe if it was presented for what it actually is, a plain collection of art essays, I wouldn’t be as scathing. But if that were the case, I wouldn’t have purchased it. Sucks.

28 people found this helpful

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Gjorgji Despodov

Amazing Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2022

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The most wonderful and DELICIOUSLY written book, each chapters draws a beautifully vivid portrait of an artist.

Amazon Customer

Probably Good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

Bought for a partner. She had it already.

3 people found this helpful

Vikzwrites

An interesting read from an amazing writer

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

Two disclaimers. I received this book from the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. More importantly, I am a major Olivia Laing fan girl. I love the way that Laing combines literary biography and personal memoir to create an exciting fresh art form. Funny Weather is a collection of previously published works, focusing on, the lives of certain artists and personal narratives outlining the role of art within the author’s life.

This is an essay collection. So, not every essay will be of interest. The more personal shine through more brightly than others. But, overall, this collection is well worth a read.

5 people found this helpful

Dave McVane

Very readable, perceptive criticism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

A collection of essays on art and culture, focusing mainly on avant garde and experimental artists and writers, although there are some essays on more mainstream figures. Laing is a wonderful writer: she has a strong, lucid style, and an intelligent take on most things. I enjoyed it particularly because it introduced me to stuff I didn't know much about, and reminded me of things I'd forgotten!

7 people found this helpful

Cliente Amazon

Laing sempre vale a pena ler

Reviewed in Brazil on September 11, 2021

Verified Purchase

Laing é uma escritora maravilhosa, que conta histórias sobre as vidas de artistas com nuancias e envolvimento. Sempre apresenta também aspectos biográficos sobre os quais pouco se lê.

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