The Möbius Book (2025) by Catherine Lacey

 Audiobook Review

The Möbius Book (2025)

 by Catherine Lacey

  I loved The Biography of X, Catherine Lacey's 2023 combination of alternate history, downtown New York art scene report and LGBT character study.  I listened to the Audiobook, then had someone track down a hard copy in New York at a time when I couldn't find a copy here in LA, then read the hardcover, then told everyone that I loved it.  It wasn't quite enough to get me into her back catalog, but it was enough for me to check out her new work, The Möbius Book, which is billed as a combination memoir/fiction with a typographical stunt where the nonfiction is written in one direction, and then the fiction is written in the opposite direction.  Honestly, I would have bought a copy on my recent travels, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  Instead, I checked out the Audiobook from library.   Apologies to authorial intent.  

  It occurred to me, as it did to the reviewer in the New York Times, that Lacey might be playing a trick on the reader, as she is wont to do.  The Times wasn't the only review to make that point- a quick internet search revealed a feature from The Observer published in June which named her ex-husband, author Jesse Ball.  The memoir portion calls Ball "The Reason" and depicts a number of behaviors which, objectively speaking, border on the abusive.   I'm not talking in any criminal sense- the worst it gets is Ball/The Reason breaking things near the body of Lacey but it is disturbing stuff.   The fictional portion also deals with a woman, Edie, struggling with the end of a relationship, and her friend also dealing with the end of her lesbian marriage.  It all sounds pretty mundane, but Lacey is bonafide interesting author and I enjoyed the topic in spite of myself because of the wit and insightfulness Lacey brings to the table.  I think it is time to get into the back catalog.

 Also Happy Booker Longlist day!!!