Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Audiobook9 hours
Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency
Written by Olivia Laing
Narrated by Sophie Aldred
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
"One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction" (Harper's Bazaar) explores the role of art in the tumultuous twenty-first century.
In the age of Trump and Brexit, every crisis is instantly overridden by the next. The turbulent political weather of the twenty-first century generates anxiety and makes it difficult to know how to react. Olivia Laing makes a brilliant, inspiring case for why art matters more than ever, as a force of both resistance and repair. Art, she argues, changes how we see the world. It gives us X-ray vision. It reveals inequalities and offers fertile new ways of living.
Funny Weather brings together a career's worth of Laing's writing about art and culture, and their role in our political and emotional lives. She profiles Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia O'Keeffe, interviews Hilary Mantel and Ali Smith, writes love letters to David Bowie and Wolfgang Tillmans, and explores loneliness and technology, women and alcohol, sex and the body. With characteristic originality and compassion, Funny Weather celebrates art as an antidote to a terrifying political moment.
In the age of Trump and Brexit, every crisis is instantly overridden by the next. The turbulent political weather of the twenty-first century generates anxiety and makes it difficult to know how to react. Olivia Laing makes a brilliant, inspiring case for why art matters more than ever, as a force of both resistance and repair. Art, she argues, changes how we see the world. It gives us X-ray vision. It reveals inequalities and offers fertile new ways of living.
Funny Weather brings together a career's worth of Laing's writing about art and culture, and their role in our political and emotional lives. She profiles Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia O'Keeffe, interviews Hilary Mantel and Ali Smith, writes love letters to David Bowie and Wolfgang Tillmans, and explores loneliness and technology, women and alcohol, sex and the body. With characteristic originality and compassion, Funny Weather celebrates art as an antidote to a terrifying political moment.
Author
Olivia Laing
Olivia Laing is a widely acclaimed writer and critic. She’s the author of several books, including The Lonely City, Everybody and Funny Weather. Her first novel, Crudo, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and won the 2019 James Tait Memorial Prize. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages and in 2018 she was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction.
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Reviews for Funny Weather
Rating: 4.409090909090909 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
22 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5utterly lucid and life-affirming; a book for everyone of us. Olivia Laing is a prophet for the creed of art, love, and relentless possibility.
aside from the audiobook narrators comically atrocious pronunciations of a few words (how does one get ‘Bowie’ wrong…..) the text, whilst beautifully tactile in its hardback form (a work of art in itself), is an empathic and hospitable companion to listen to as we each & all muddle through moment after moment of unprecedented times.
whether you’re a keen follower of 20th century art, or have a scant lay understanding, Laing’s prose offers insight, camaraderie, and introduction/reintroduction to the marvels of the human experience and the vitality of creativity. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I will be re-listening and re-listening making sure I didn’t lose a word as this is a brilliant book and a great audiobook