The Surrender of Man

A memoir-in-stories, THE SURRENDER OF MAN by Naomi Falk is a modern-day manifesto/guide akin to Olivia Laing and Moyra Davey in the experience and importance of art in our understanding of ourselves and the many facets of our lives from pain to ecstasy.

Each chapter fixates on a particular work of art: a painting, a stone, a film, a photograph. Some of the artists are dear friends while others are familiar to you or me. The works metamorphose from pure expressions of pain to those that are more emotionally complex. Some artists include Alfred Kubin, Louise Bourgeois, Wendy Red Star, Rauschenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, and Remedios Varo. These chapters are interspersed with a fever dream of narrative memoir, highlighting key moments in Falk's life. She is remarkable in her conjuration of the feeling of an artwork on the page, reminiscent of Sheila Heti's PURE COLOUR and Laird Hunt in her precision, metaphors, and descriptions. Her exploration of her relationship to art and writing move into larger conversations about the transformative power of art and suffuse the examinations of the pieces of art themselves. The book is an incredible blend of memoir, philosophy, dark humor, and art criticism that is a necessary antidote to daily life.

Naomi is a writer, editor, and book designer. She previously worked in the Museum of Modern Art's Publications Department, and is editor and production manager of photo book publisher powerhouse books and senior editor for Archway Editions. Naomi is a graduate from Columbia University's MFA in Writing, where she was awarded a teaching fellowship. Naomi is a contributor to BOMB Magazine, where she writes about art and literature, and her work can be found in Freeze Magazine, Up Mag, HOAX Magazine, EuropeNow Journal, Black Sun Lit, Supper Magazine, Fugue, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn.