Tags
20 Books of Summer, 20 Books of Summer 2021, 3.5 stars, 4 stars, books, essays, first time read, Funny Weather, LGBTQ+ author, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, own book, read in 2021, reading, review
![](https://lettersfromthelighthouse.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/img_20210712_192749_381.jpg?w=1024)
Title: Funny Weather. Art in an Emergency
Author: Olivia Laing
First published: 2020
Dates read: 11. 07. – 21. 07. 2021
Category: first time read, own book, essays, non-fiction, LGBTQ+ author
Rating: 3.5-4/5
The book in five words or less: a collection for fans
My thoughts:
If you have been following this blog and my reading journey for any length of time, you will probably have noticed that Olivia Laing features a lot here. In fact, this is the third book of hers I’ve read this year alone, and she is easily one of my favourite contemporary non-fiction writers.
Unlike her three earlier non-fiction books, To the River, The Lonely City, and The Trip to Echo Spring, Funny Weather is an essay collection and, as is the nature of most essay collections, a touch uneven. The collection contains a number of Laing’s shorter works that have been published elsewhere – literature reviews, short artist biographies, cultural columns, author interviews, notes on reading, etc. – and many of the topics found in Funny Weather reappear in Laing’s long-form work: The essays cover (modern/contemporary) art, artists and art history (especially queer art & artists), current events, thoughts on sexuality and (bodily) freedom, writing and creation, loneliness, addiction and mental health.
What all of these essays do is to invite further reading and research. They are short and by nature non-exhaustive, but Laing’s talent for close description and for pointing out larger implications and broad connections makes them compelling starting points for more extensive investigation. It’s actually why I come back to Laing time and again: Somehow every one of her works manages to make me interested in topics and people that I didn’t even know existed (or that I didn’t know I’d be interested in). What is more, Laing is an astute observer and compassionate writer who is interested in broad recurring themes and existential questions, but not at the expense of clarity and without sounding overly academic, and that certainly helps, too. (I may be biased, but I love and agree with her stance on the importance of art and bodily freedom and her interest in in-between things, the undefined and transgressional.)
That said, I don’t think Funny Weather is necessarily the right book to start with if you want to get the best of Olivia Laing’s writing* – unless its broad selection appeals to you precisely because it covers the breadth of her main themes and interests.
*(I recommend The Lonely City if you want more on art, alienation, and modern living, and To the River if you want nature writing and layers of literature and history)
Read if you like: contemporary/modern art and art history, pick and mix collections, pointers towards further reading, Olivia Laing’s other works, essays on culture and current events, any of the following: Derek Jarman, David Wojnarowicz, David Bowie, Freddy Mercury, and Jean-Michel Basquiat