I literally read this one with a fervour that I hadn’t known in a while. “Biography of X” is all over the place and that’s why I loved it so. It is funny, it is philosophical, quite a rollercoaster ride of the human condition, and above all it is audacious and masterfully constructed.
Biography of X is the biography of a deceased woman who called herself X. It is her life seen through the eyes of her wife who is left behind. There is a lot of angst, layers of revelations, emotions that run high and low, and above all a sense of “how much do we know people”, or “do we know them at all” kind of feeling you are left with, once done with the book.
The novel plays with so many themes, and very soon the joy is in seeing how there is also an alternate timeline of the US History in a world very different from ours. There is also the concept of “who gets to tell whose story” and at the end of it all, do we have liberties because of our relationships?
Lacey’s writing is razor-sharp, deeply empathetic, and also funny in many parts. She ensures that there is a sense of mystery, and as a reader somehow she also gives you the agency to decide small outcomes for yourself as the story progresses. Through the characters, we witness the history of places, of time, and memory, and how fragile all of it can be. A read not to be missed.
Of Books and Reading 