What do readers think of Everybody by Olivia Laing? Write your own review.

I've read and enjoyed several of Olivia Laing's books in the past, but this one did not hold my interest. I found it to be dry and repetitious.

Laing is an excellent writer who obviously conducted a great deal of research about the body, studied it extensively, and examined and explained it quite thoroughly and clearly in this book. However, I did not find the subject interesting, and so I found reading this book to be a chore. Others may very well have a much more positive response, but this is a book that turned out not to be for me.

What is this book? What does it have to do with it's title? It is thoroughly researched, full of very large words requiring the use of a dictionary, and is described as ambitious and brilliant. I could not understand why the author wrote this book or what she was trying to say.

Why is it important to "struggle for bodily freedom?" Are we inhabitants of this world to only please ourselves? Much of the book is centered on Wilhelm Reich who imagined a "society organized around the orgasm"!?

Winston Churchill wrote "What is the use of living if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a …more better place for those who live in it after we are gone?"

I struggled with this book, wishing for the admiration and understanding to arrive. That moment did not come for me and I continue to wish that the author had used her impressive vocabulary for a better purpose. (less)