Book Review: “The Möbius Book, by Catherine Lacey - The New York Times


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Key Points

Catherine Lacey's "The Möbius Book" is a unique literary work presented as two books in one. One is a novella with elements of a murder mystery, and the other is a memoir reflecting on a breakup and friendship during the pandemic, with philosophical reflections on religion interspersed.

Structure and Format

The book's physical form is designed to be read from either end, creating a Möbius strip-like experience. Its unconventional structure mirrors the complex emotional journey explored in its contents.

Content Overview

  • Novella: A murder mystery-infused story.
  • Memoir: Explores the author's experience of a breakup with fellow writer Jesse Ball, during the pandemic. The memoir is interwoven with thoughts on faith and the nature of relationships.

Author's Style

The review highlights Lacey's known proclivity for formal experimentation, referencing her previously published work, "Biography of X." The book includes mentions of other authors in the literary circle, creating an interwoven sense of community and shared experience.

Overall Impression

While the review provides a synopsis, the full depth of the review's critical analysis is unavailable due to the incomplete article content. However, the description strongly implies a work of significant experimental and emotional depth.

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THE MÖBIUS BOOK, by Catherine Lacey

The first thing to know about “The Möbius Book,” by Catherine Lacey, is that it is actually two books. One is a novella with a hint of murder mystery. Start from the opposite side, flipping upside down — how will this work on a Kindle? — and you’ll find the other: a memoir of breakup and friendship during the pandemic, interspersed with musings on religion.

Where will bookstores put this loopy blue thing? Amazon, with unusual resourcefulness, has nested it for now under Self-Help/Relationships/Love & Loss (though I’d wager the author’s core audience avoids Amazon).

One has come to expect such formal experiments from Lacey, especially after her bravura “Biography of X”: not a biography of anyone real, but a footnoted, name-dropping, time-melting fourth novel that made many best lists in 2023.

There are plenty of names pelted into “The Möbius Book,” too — author friends like Heidi Julavits and Sarah Manguso, and many others — but one notably missing in the memoir part is that of Lacey’s ex, which gentle Googling reveals is yet another writer, Jesse Ball. Here he is referred to as The Reason: the literary-circle equivalent, maybe, of The Weeknd.

He is the “reason” why she has become a visitor to, rather than a resident of, the house they bought together, after receiving an email he sent from another room, composed on his phone, telling her he’d met another woman. (At least not a Post-it?) He is also, or so she believed, a pillar of masculine rationality. With tattoos.

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