Biography of X

Let's first tackle the elephant in the room: is Biography of X sexist? Well, yes. Yes, it is. Largely in the same vein as early twentieth century science fiction tended to be overly simplistic and reductive in developing female characters, the large majority of male characters in this novel are two-dimensional hyperbolised caricatures, perfectly placed to carry the weight of blame and fault. And that's alright, I get it.

That out of the way, what Catherine Lacey does in this novel is nothing short of impressive, both in building an alternate history version of the US that some would consider too possible for comfort, and simultaneously digging through the emotional stack of a main character, exposing her strengths and weaknesses, fears and motivations, as she unravels the life's mysteries of her departed wife. Catherine does so with an elegance and simplicity of prose, and a sincerity of feeling that is uncommon in genre writing.

Biography of X aims to be a cautionary tale of geopolitical scale, but where it succeeds the most is at studying the complexity of human beings - the layers of motivation, drive, fear, hypocrisy, and fallacies that compose us; the walking, talking paradoxes that we are.

At that, it succeeds in spades.

A multilayered and ambitious book that explores the public persona and personal life of a fictional eccentric celebrity artist through the eyes of her widow, who knew little about her late wife's past. The worldbuilding isn't perfect, but it's not lacking to the point of distraction. The author did a marvelous job in constructing X's complex personality and her troubled relationships with the people But the depiction of X as a magnetic figure instantly impressing everyone she met, felt overly convoluted and unrealistic. Also, the book often seemed far too long, with sections devoted to either describing X's god complex or showing how everyone seemed to be in awe of her.
Great concept, but not without flaws.
3.75/5

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey is a fictional biography of a fictional woman who's life was so many fictions, but perhaps therein lies the truth. Set in an alternative version of the past, but maybe offering a chilling speculation about our present and future, the narrator sets out to write a biography of her late wife, the artist/writer known as X. Against the dystopian backdrop of a recently reunified US, the author goes on a quest citing numerous interviews and sources to unravel the complex and convoluted string of identities X had played throughout her life in an attempt to document her life...calling into question how well she had truly known her and even the nature of knowing another, and maybe even the self. This is a very literary book, much more so than my usual reading. I picked it up because of the dystopian elements found in the Southern Territories and Former Southern Territories, which reminded me of Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. These were my favorite parts of the book, even if some aspects of the execution did seem a bit heavy-handed. Otherwise I found the cast of characters and numerous complicated ideas throughout the text to be a bit confusing, though Lacey generally did a good job of grounding the abstract in the human.