Abandoned: The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing

I found this subject matter intriguing, since I had also lived alone in Manhattan for eleven years, and often thought about so many people living so closely together but maintaining such singular and single lives. At times it was invigorating to be alone in the crowd, walking the streets on my personal quests, but there could be lonely moments when it seemed there was no one who was available to go along for a meal, a walk, a drink...and this was long before the Internet, texting or the social media we rely on today to keep us connected. Fortunately I was not the sort of person who was intimidated by a singular seat in a movie theater or a coffee shop, and as a devoted reader, I always had the company of a pile of books just crying out to be savored.

I got a little tired of reading about the author's melancholy experience of being alone in a strange city, but when she moved on to writing about the artist Edward Hopper, I was much more engaged, as I have always been intrigued by his work, which seems so emblematic of certain aspects of the city. I found the section on Andy Warhol interesting at first, but about a third of the way through, my desire to continue with the book petered out. I leafed through the rest, but nothing else really caught my eye and encouraged me to continue. There is a long section on AIDS, but perhaps because I lived through the height of the epidemic and lost friends, neighbors and acquaintances, I didn't want to revisit that horrible time. 

I abandoned the book after about sixty-five pages.

So, while I didn't finish it, I am finished with it. It will be back to the library later in the day...