Everybody: A Book About Freedom

"Reflecting on her fraught sense of embodiment, Laing creates a penetrating examination of the political and cultural meanings ascribed to bodies as well as the relationships of bodies to power and freedom ..."

"What surfaces are the mechanisms of shame and glory that inform radical engagement ..."

"Never condescending or unkind, Laing explores the experiences of those crushed by feckless cruelty, shaken by cancer, or crazed by their impulses to eke out possibility, meaning and joy — all to achieve a semblance of freedom ..."

"This is an expansive book, bold in scope and speculative range, an invitation to ongoing conversation rather than bland assent."

"The book proceeds, via an almost dreamlike, permutative logic, from the body as prison to the body in prison to masses of bodies in prison to masses of bodies in protest."

"The author dedicates the book to 'bodies in peril,' from individuals impacted by the European migrant crisis of 2015, to everyone impacted by COVID-19."

"She adopts a similar approach – an adeptly braided mix of cultural criticism, biography, and memoir – to explore the body from multiple perspectives, most particularly as a potential locus of freedom in what continues to be a constricted world ..."

"Laing makes an entertaining tour guide, moving like a magpie through art, history and politics, and accumulating an exhilarating set of connections ..."

"Everybody: A Book About Freedom finds Laing taking a similar approach as she masterfully shares stories of fascinating artists and historical figures ..."