Listen to a sample
Negative Space
- Author
- Lilly Dancyger
- Narrator
- Lilly Dancyger
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 31 July 2021
- Run Time
- 6 hours 28 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
A memoir from the editor of Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger, Negative Space explores Dancyger’s own anger, grief, and artistic inheritance as she sets out to illuminate the darkness her father hid from her, as well as her own.
Despite her parents’ struggles with addiction, Lilly Dancyger always thought of her childhood as a happy one. But what happens when a journalist interrogates her own rosy memories to reveal the instability around the edges?
Dancyger’s father, Joe Schactman, was part of the iconic 1980s East Village art scene. He created provocative sculptures out of found materials like animal bones, human hair, and broken glass and brought his young daughter into his gritty, iconoclastic world. She idolized him—despite the escalating heroin addiction that sometimes overshadowed his creative passion. When Schactman died suddenly, just as Dancyger was entering adolescence, she went into her own self-destructive spiral, raging against a world that had taken her father away.
As an adult, Dancyger began to question the mythology she had created about her father—the brilliant artist, struck down in his prime. Using his sculptures, paintings, and prints as a guide, Dancyger sought out the characters from his world who could help her decode the language of her father’s work to find the truth of who he really was.
Critics Review
-
“Much like her father had, Dancyger crafts a striking composition out of found objects, a poignant portrait of the identities we construct out of grief.”
O, The Oprah Magazine
-
“[A] fierce, intimate work.”
Refinery29
-
“Negative Space is a beautiful restoration act.”
Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water
-
“A lovely and heartbreaking book.”
Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
“Candid, thrilling, wickedly smart, Negative Space is one of the greatest memoirs of this, or any, time.”
T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls
-
“This book is a true accomplishment, one that often left me stunned and disturbed in all the right ways, all the ways brilliant art does.”
Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body
-
“An unflinching account of her artist father’s snake-bitten life and his struggles with addiction—peeling back the layers around an artistic practice that seems weighted with vulnerability.”
Cynthia Carr, author of Fire in the Belly
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Lilly Dancyger
- Narrator
- Lilly Dancyger
- Duration
- 6 hours 28 minutes
- Release Date
- 31 July 2021
- ISBN
- 9781665033848
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Biography: general, Individual artists, art monographs, Individual architects and architectural firms, Individual photographers
Synopsis
A memoir from the editor of Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger, Negative Space explores Dancyger’s own anger, grief, and artistic inheritance as she sets out to illuminate the darkness her father hid from her, as well as her own.Despite her parents’ struggles with addiction, Lilly Dancyger always thought of her childhood as a happy one. But what happens when a journalist interrogates her own rosy memories to reveal the instability around the edges?Dancyger’s father, Joe Schactman, was part of the iconic 1980s East Village art scene. He created provocative sculptures out of found materials like animal bones, human hair, and broken glass and brought his young daughter into his gritty, iconoclastic world. She idolized him—despite the escalating heroin addiction that sometimes overshadowed his creative passion. When Schactman died suddenly, just as Dancyger was entering adolescence, she went into her own self-destructive spiral, raging against a world that had taken her father away.As an adult, Dancyger began to question the mythology she had created about her father—the brilliant artist, struck down in his prime. Using his sculptures, paintings, and prints as a guide, Dancyger sought out the characters from his world who could help her decode the language of her father’s work to find the truth of who he really was.
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.