''Crudo'' is a 2018 novel by

Olivia Laing Olivia Laing (born 14 April 1977) is a British writer, novelist and cultural critic. She is the author of four works of non-fiction, ''To the River'', ''The Trip to Echo Spring,'' '' The Lonely City'', and ''Everybody'', as well as an essay colle ...

. The book, Laing's first novel, incorporates autobiographical elements and details from the life of American author

Kathy Acker Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, playwright, essayist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with themes such as childhood trau ...

. The novel was well-received, winning the

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

Composition and writing

Laing originally did not intend to publish the book, saying she was "writing it for herself". She has referred to the book as an "experiment", and in order to " ..smash the mold of the kind of book she might be expected to produce". While writing the book, Laing followed two rules: that she had to write daily, and that she could not " ..edit or reshape the material". She wrote the book "in a frenzy" over a period of six weeks. She included news events, mostly drawn from her

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

feed, as they occurred during the days she was writing. Laing's inspiration for the book came while she vacationing in the

Val d'Orcia The Val d'Orcia or Valdorcia () is a region of Tuscany, central Italy, which extends from the hills south of Siena to Monte Amiata. Its gentle, cultivated hills are occasionally broken by gullies and by picturesque towns and villages such as Pie ...

region of Italy. During the trip Laing read a biography of Kathy Acker by Chris Kraus and was intrigued by Acker's deliberate plagiarism and appropriation of the works of other authors, such as

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

and

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

. Laing had previously read some of Acker's work. Laing has referred to the novel's protagonist as a " ..hybrid Frankenstein composite of me and Acker". The book includes references to Acker's works, such as ''

Blood and Guts in High School ''Blood and Guts in High School'' is a novel by Kathy Acker. It was written in the late 1970s and copyrighted in 1978. It traveled a complex and circuitous route to publication, before being officially released in 1984. It remains Acker's most po ...

''.

Reception

Critical reception

Dwight Garner Dwight Garner (born January 8, 1965) is an American journalist and longtime writer and editor for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, he was named a book critic for the newspaper. He is the author of ''Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany'' and ...

, in a review written for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' referred to the novel as "less persuasive" than Laing's non-fiction work. Garner noted that ''Crudo'' is Laing's first novel, and that it seemed she was " ..still feeling her way" into fiction. In her review for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', Alexandra Schwartz praised the book as a "funny, fervent" novel. Dilara O'Neil, writing for ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', compared ''Crudo'' unfavorably to Ben Lerner's novel '' 10:04''.

Honors

Laing won the

for the novel. A judge for the prize, Alex Lawrie, praised ''Crudo'', saying it was " ..a bold and reactive political novel that captures a raw slice of contemporary history with pace, charm, and wit". Rather than retain the £10,000 award for herself, she chose to split it with the authors shortlisted for the prize. Laing has said that choosing a single winner for an artistic prize can be "corrosive...part of a capitalist model that has no place in art". She also reiterated a claim made in the novel that " ..competition has no place in art". The authors with whom Laing shared the prize were Will Eaves,

Jessie Greengrass Jessie Greengrass (born 1982) is a British author. She won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her debut short story collection. Education and career Greengrass studied philosophy in Cambridge and London and now live ...

, and Nafissa Thompson-Spires. ''Crudo'' was featured as one of 2018's best novels in lists compiled by ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' and ''

Bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. ...

''.

References

{{reflist 2018 British novels Picador (imprint) books English-language novels Novels set in the United States Novels set in the United Kingdom 2018 debut novels W. W. Norton & Company books Novels set in Italy