{"product_id":"trying-to-be-a-collection-9781573662147","title":"Trying to Be: A Collection","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith lyrical precision and aching intimacy, Trying to Be moves through history, memory, and the performance of ephemeral identity, as John Haskell assembles a quiet manifesto for how to think, how to live, and how to feel ourselves in our bodies.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTrying to Be \u003c\/i\u003eis a book about presence, absence, and the intricate art of inhabiting one's own life. John Haskell--known for his genre-defying literary voice--moves through a series of intimate, sharply observed portraits: Francis Bacon and his doomed lover; Danny Kaye and his split personality; Sophia Loren; Diego Velázquez; Ulrike Meinhof; and Yvonne Rainer's radical reinvention of what dance can be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut this isn't cultural commentary as ornament. These figures mirror Haskell's own attempts to grapple with grief, estrangement, memory, and the failures of language. The result is a book that blurs the line between criticism and confession, art history and personal inventory. Whether recalling a botched friendship, a beloved mentor, or the carefully choreographed movement in a dance workshop, Haskell searches for new ways of becoming--through art, through awareness, through stories that have the quality of song. In prose that's quiet but unflinching, \u003ci\u003e Trying to Be\u003c\/i\u003e asks: What do we do with our bodies, our memories, and our regrets when even language feels exhausted? And what happens when, against the odds, we keep going?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Haskell\u003c\/b\u003e is author of \u003ci\u003eI Am Not Jackson Pollock, American Purgatorio, Out of My Skin\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Complete Ballet\u003c\/i\u003e. He has written on art and dance, is a contributing editor at \u003ci\u003eBOMB\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Public Space\u003c\/i\u003e, is the recipient of NYFA grants and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and has taught writing and literature in Los Angeles, New York, and Leipzig.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"F2c","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51649039565074,"sku":"9781573662147","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_83909537-1a54-46b7-a243-e4a882d3edb6.jpg?v=1759844023","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/trying-to-be-a-collection-9781573662147","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}