Olivia Laing

"Love may not be original, but this funny, fervent novel is."--The New Yorker

A Novel

Crudo

OLIVIA. LAING

Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It's the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart. From a Tuscan hotel for the super-rich to a Brexit-paralysed UK, Kathy spends the first summer of her 40s trying to adjust to making a lifelong commitment just as Trump is tweeting the world into nuclear war. But it's not only Kathy who's changing. Political, social and natural landscapes are all in peril. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is hotting up. Is it really worth learning to love when the end of the world is nigh? And how do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all. Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel in a brilliant, funny and emphatically raw account of love in the apocalypse. A Goodbye to Berlin for the 21st century, Crudo charts in real time what it was like to live and love in the horrifying summer of 2017, from the perspective of a commitment-phobic peripatetic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker . . .

Not for me, I’ll stick to Laing’s non-fiction.

Emma Cragg

Shortlisted for the Goldsmith's Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize and the James Tait Black Award. Dive in to a tale of love and loathing with the beach read of the summer. Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It’s the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart. From a Tuscan hotel for the super-rich to a Brexit-paralysed UK, Kathy spends the first summer of her forties trying to adjust to making a lifelong commitment just as Trump is tweeting the world into nuclear war. But it’s not only Kathy who’s changing. Political, social and natural landscapes are all in peril. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is hotting up. Is it really worth learning to love when the end of the world is nigh? And how do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all. Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel in a brilliant, funny and emphatically raw account of love in the apocalypse. A Goodbye to Berlin for the 21st century, Crudo charts in real time what it was like to live and love in the horrifying summer of 2017, from the perspective of a commitment-phobic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker . . .

Valeria M

A Sunday Times Top Ten BestsellerKathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It's the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart.From a Tuscan hotel for the super-rich to a Brexit-paralysed UK, Kathy spends the first summer of her 40s trying to adjust to making a lifelong commitment just as Trump is tweeting the world into nuclear war. But it's not only Kathy who's changing. Political, social and natural landscapes are all in peril. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is hotting up. Is it really worth learning to love when the end of the world is nigh? And how do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all.Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel in a brilliant, funny and emphatically raw account of love in the apocalypse. A Goodbye to Berlin for the 21st century, Crudo charts in real time what it was like to live and love in the horrifying summer of 2017, from the perspective of a commitment-phobic peripatetic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker . . .

heleen de boever

(possibly 5*; need to collect my thoughts and possibly no definitely re-read)

I found this really difficult to read but I couldn’t put it down, but I also couldn’t tell you what it’s about…so confused. 

Lauren M

Charlotte Dann

Crudo is written _by_ and about Kathy, a 40 year old woman getting married in the summer of 2017. Kathy's life isn't particularly extraordinary or interesting, but the style of writing gave her a dramatic, erratic aura that grated on me (as it was meant to?).

I felt pretty called out by the snippet "she liked hysterics but also stoics", but other than that felt little to no attachment to the character. However, I did think about myself a lot while reading this, how I think differently to her and would make different decisions, and finished the book with a profound awareness of my own autonomy - a terrific feeling, hard to come by when reading in someone else's world.

"She had no idea what to do with love, she experienced it as invasion, as the prelude to loss and pain, she really didn't have a clue."Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It's the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart. Fast-paced and frantic, Crudo unfolds in real time from the full-throttle perspective of a commitment-phobic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker.From a Tuscan hotel for the superrich to a Brexit-paralyzed United Kingdom, Kathy spends the first summer of her forties adjusting to the idea of a lifelong commitment. But it's not only Kathy who's changing. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is heating up, and Trump is tweeting the world ever-closer to nuclear war. How do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all?In Crudo, her first work of fiction, Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel with a fierce, compassionate account of learning to love when the end of the world seems near.

Emily Perkovich

I had a really hard time with this book. Not because I didn’t like it. I think the voice of Kathy is so erratic that I felt I was reading one of my journals during a manic episode. The recent history in the story line added to this. It made me uncomfortable with myself, and it was difficult for me to stay in the story because of this.

Hazel Evans

Pacy and addictive and relatable and unpredictable and refreshingly rule-breaking and worrying and also quite funny.

Crudo A Novel

Reviews