{"product_id":"trying-to-be-a-collection","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","brand":"John Haskell","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47286510649580,"sku":"9781573662147","price":20.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9781573662147.jpg?v=1770447944","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/trying-to-be-a-collection","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}