BIOGRAPHY OF X: A Novel
by Catherine Lacey
FSG. 416 pages, $28.
CATHERINE LACEY’S new book, Biography of X, is an innovative novel chronicling the life of an influential, outré, fictional performance artist named X, narrated by her grief-stricken widow, an investigative reporter, CM Lucca, who is contemplating suicide. Angered by a recent unauthorized biography of X written by a man who never even met her, CM decides to write her own “corrective” biography of X. She embarks on a decade-long journey beginning after X’s death in 1996, delving into her life to find out where she came from and who she was. As CM uncovers a myriad of X’s personæ, her wife emerges as a near-mythical woman possessing an “uncommon brutality” who seemed to be everywhere all at once. X’s contributions to art and culture from 1972 to her death border on fantastical, an artist portrayed as an unrivaled creator of music, performance art, painting, photography, and literature.
X’s art exhibitions over the years are described as confrontational but successful. Provocation, Continuation, and An Account of My Abduction are just a few of her exhibitions. Some are incendiary, like The Pain Room, which includes a six-minute film filled with images of torture, and if the viewer looks away, they receive a slight shock. The highly creative use of citations, footnotes, archival matter, and photos makes the narrative credible and fascinating. Adding real-life prominent figures like Wes Anderson, Jane Fonda, and Patti Smith further enhances the plausibility, almost convincing us that X was a real artist and historical figure.
Even though they were married for years, CM knows nothing about X’s life before she landed as Dorothy Eagle in New York City in 1972. Dipping in and out of different periods in X’s history, CM interviews people from her past, beginning in Montana, where she meets X’s former friend and lover, Dave Moser. He reveals that Dorothy Eagle was born Caroline Luanna Walker in Byhalia, Mississippi. Using a clever reimagining of American history, Mississippi belongs to the Southern Territory of the U.S., one of three territories created by the Great Disunion of 1945, the year that X was born.
From 1945 to 1996, the Southern Territory (ST) is a fascist theocracy surrounded by a wall, and the Northern and Western Territories are free and progressive but have differing views on their diplomatic approaches to the South. This alternative history also includes Emma Goldman as FDR’s chief of staff and Bernie Sanders as president. Much like X’s life story, this America feels eerily possible, familiar yet out of focus, as if it were only an arm’s length away. X manages to escape to the Northern Territory in her twenties, which is nearly impossible and punishable as a federal crime.
In 1999, three years after the Reunification of the Territories had begun, CM is accompanied by a “travel mentor” through the newly free Former Southern Territory (FST). She learns that Carrie Luanna Walker grew up in an extreme dictatorship where radio stations only played hymns, attending Sunday Mass was mandatory, and beheadings were not uncommon. She married Paul Vine, becoming Carrie Lu Walker Vine, and bore a son, Zebulon. Within a few years, Carrie Lu joins a group of dissidents who plot to blow up a gun factory. This is known as the Revelation Rifle Affair, a rebellious uprising that ends in an explosion. Although most of her friends and family believe Carrie Lu died that night, she flees to the North, abandoning her husband and son.
These interviews with former friends, lovers, and family reveal an ever-changing collage of X’s personalities and beliefs. Was X a sham, an imposter, or a brilliant artist reflecting society through provocative cultural commentary? Was she only creating these covers to elude the Southern Territory agents she believed were following her? CM’s journey of discovery also confirms that no matter which guise X took on, she was mercurial, sometimes cruel, prone to unexplained absences, and tending to abandon people. But she always left an indelible mark on anyone who knew her.
While researching X, CM also mourns the loss of the woman around whom she had built her life, confronting a maelstrom of anger and resentment at X’s secrets, betrayals, and former lovers; stultifying depression about relinquishing her life’s purpose for X’s art; periods of denial about things X had done; survivor’s guilt; and even doubts over whether X was really gone. World-weary and skeptical, CM’s narrative voice is intelligent and tinged with wit as she ruminates over her memories, questions her life with X, and doubts her sanity.
This marvel of a novel incorporates biography, memoir, and journalistic research to impressive, dizzying heights. Despite X’s extraordinary life and art, the story belongs to CM’s grief and loss and to the questions the novel raises about separating art from the artist and the possibility of ever knowing someone honestly.
Monica Carter, the national program director for LGBTQ Writers in Schools, is based in Bennington, VT.
