How Catherine Lacey Crafted Her Intricate, Genre-Bending New Novel

There’s something especially enchanting about a movie in which the characters make a film (think Sunset Boulevard or The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou); by highlighting the artifice of the medium, it tends to expose the complexities of translating lived experience into a work of art. Author Catherine Lacey’s latest novel, Biography of X, accomplishes the same while adding yet another layer. Spurred by the sudden death of her wife, called X, CM decides to write a biography of the woman she loved. Yet, as our protagonist soon discovers, X’s life as a polarizing artist whose work centered on identity and performance was actually a set of carefully curated deceits—complete with many elaborate identities. 

In time, CM’s research brings her to the Southern Territory, a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the United States after World War II. (Lacey’s America, which includes references to writers and critics like Merve Emre, Lynne Tillman, Rachel Syme, and Naomi Fry, resembles reality if it were kept in a damp environment, left to grow, and morph at unprecedented speed.) It becomes a setting ripe for a love-story-in-reverse, in which a grieving widow slowly realizes how little she knew her wife and must sort through the similarities between love, art, and manipulation. 

Through Biography of X, Lacey has deepened the interest in surveillance and obsession that animated her previous novels Nobody iIs Ever Missing, The Answers (currently being adapted for television), and Pew. What unfolds urges the reader to consider just how well they can know anyone—or, as CM says, “Perhaps it’s all much simpler than that: We cannot see the full and terrible truth of anyone with whom we closely live. Everything blurs when held too near.”

Vogue recently spoke to Lacey about blending fiction and nonfiction, drawing inspiration from iconic figures like Kathy Acker and Andy Warhol, and the complicated relationship between an artist and a fan. 

Vogue: Could you talk about how this novel came to be?

Catherine Lacey: While I was revising my second book, I really wanted to write a proper biography. I had a specific person in mind, an artist, and, so, I spoke to one of my teachers, an amazing and very accomplished biographer. She thought it was a horrible idea. She said that writing a biography about a living person can be complicated, and she was, like, “The whole thing is going to kill you.”  I trust her and think that she was right, but, when I am told that I shouldn’t do something, I become indignant and I have to do it. So, I started thinking about the concept of a fictional biography. I thought, who would be the worst person to write a biography of somebody after they are dead, and it would have to be a grieving spouse. There were some gut impulses that I couldn’t argue with. I knew it should take place during the mid-20th century and that it should be about a chaotic artist because that is the type of biography that I like to read. I knew the marriage would be between two women, but also, I didn’t want to have my characters go through the types of things that lesbian couples went through in the mid-20th century, so I rewrote American history so that they didn’t have to worry about that. That was the origin of the geographically divided United States in my book. It was an elaborate set so that two queer people could just be. I just want queer people to be left alone and not have to explain themselves. I’ve dated both men and women, and I always feel like there comes a point when you are dating a woman and she asks you, “Why did you date men? What is wrong with you?” On the flip side, there is the sexualization of your relationships with women. I didn’t want my characters to have to deal with the toxicity of having to defend or explain themselves. I wanted David Bowie to live in a world where the interesting thing wasn’t that he wore makeup. 

What was it like to blend fact and fiction? 

I wanted to play with the different possibilities of North America. I had a whole list of historical events that happened off of the pages of the book, where I mapped out how this version of America came to be. Some of it is explained in the book, but most of it is not. It would be hard for me to rewrite American history and not include the people that were around during that time. I was looking at Emmanuel Carrère’s collection of essays, and I realized that I’m often attracted to irregular biographies or fiction that blends facts into it. 

Can you describe the process of developing different identities for one character?

Lots of real people served as reference points for the different characters of X—for example, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Cindy Sherman, and Adrian Piper. I was inspired by Kathy Acker’s fearlessness and Warhol’s attitude. Acker and Warhol were similar in that they were both interested in creating a persona as an artist. They came to different conclusions, but they were interested in the same questions.

What inspired the relationship between CM and X?

I was thinking about a certain dynamic the other day. Let’s say there’s a person that sees the artwork of someone else, and the viewer recognizes something of themselves and feels understood. There’s an assumption that the artist behind that work must then have a natural connection with the viewer. The artist becomes a part of the fan’s imagination, and, sometimes, they are driven to insert themselves into the artist’s space, even stalk them. It’s not out of malice, but it can become difficult to distinguish between a human being and their own imagination. It also happens in the opposite direction. Artistic people can start to believe in their own imagination, and they start to see other people as extensions of their stories. An extremely creative, productive, often brilliant person can believe in their own creativity to the extent that they start to see other people as part of their imagination. It is destructive both ways.

How was writing this novel different from writing your other novels? 

Every experience has been different. For Biography of X, I had to find or create artifacts to include in the novel.  It was really a matter of accumulation and research. I gathered artifacts like a little bowerbird. A lot of what I wrote was just part of the pyre that got burned on the way to the book. There was more outlining ahead of time. I had to figure out how I wanted to use real history and where I wanted to deviate from history. I typically don’t work with the exterior world in that way. I normally write from a gut feeling, and I don’t usually consult the outside world to get started. Eventually, I started to believe in the life of X, where, to me, she was a famous person already. But when you pick up a biography of someone, it is typically because you already know their work and you are interested in how that work came to be. As a novelist, it was my job to convince you to be interested in X.

This conversation has been edited and condensed. Biography of X by Catherine Lacey is out on March 21. 

Biography of X

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