This is an essay and review collection from Olivia Laing who is mostly known for her other nonfiction works, but also for the recent novel Crudo which fictionalizes the life of Kathy Acker, a very Kathy Acker thing to do. Primarily these essays are short and in response to a specific set of commentary parameters set forth by a publication Laing worked for, but the wander away from this later in the collection. The collection is mostly concerned with art, photography, film, and literature criticism, so the bulk of essays are focused there, but occasionally her subjects include recent politics (of the now recent or within the last ten years or so).
I only really found myself disagreeing in one section when she reviewed a bugbear of a novelist for me, and that essay was no more egregious to me than any other writing on that writer (a writer who was held up to high acclaim that I feel is completely unsupported by the novels themselves). So for the most part this was a rewarding experience. Because so many of the essays are about art and photography, I cam away with a list of different artists and works to check out online, and given the nature of online searches I could often do this while reading. The few ventures into literary work tend to be mainstream (in the sense of connected mainstream bent toward the literary) like Ali Smith, and I find these reviews less compelling because of my own writing on many of these authors. The reviews and profile of the artists is the most satisfying and interesting.
(Photo: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50755102-funny-weather?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=PFCXziZudL&rank=3)