REVIEWS
False memoir divines its own truths
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey is the most inventive and playful novel of the year. Yes, it is only April, but surely nothing can surpass this. The literary style of our times is realism; everyone wants to try to capture the zeitgeist, the Twitter age, the social climate and, well, the literal climate. Lacey brushes these notions away like crumbs on a cardigan.
is the story of the deceased artist known as X, as told by her widow. X’s life, however, is as vast a work of fiction as the novel itself. A master of disguise and pseudonyms, X jumped from career to career, country to country, with a host of fake passports, rubber prosthetics, wigs, backstories and lies. As she travelled around she found herself deep in artistic circles. She befriended David Bowie and wrote some of the songs on. She maintained a love/hate relationship with Susan Sontag. She inspired
