Part memoir and part social commentary, The Lonely City is Laing's exploration of the lives of New York artists whose work is often a manifestation of loneliness and marginalisation. One such artist is Andy Warhol, who experienced a lifelong struggle with alienation and aloneness. His story is a fascinating one, and Laing intersperses her real-time experiences with observations on Warhol's life and work to create a compelling narrative. The son of Ruthenian immigrants, Warhol spoke his native tongue at home and struggled with English – his second language – at school, where he was teased for his thick accent. Laing related. 'Since coming to America, I was forever botching the ballgame of language.' Language, Laing attests, is our primary mode of communication, and even minor incidents of mispronounced words or misunderstood colloquialisms deepen feelings of isolation.

Secondary subjects, such as Valerie Solanas – Warhol's attempted assassin and author of SCUM Manifesto (1967) – are given voice alongside the artists. According to Laing, Solanas 'had been eaten by history, reduced to a single act'. However, Solanas was as brilliant as she was mad, and the reader is invited to question previously held biases, and to view Solanas's work as worthy of consideration.

Finally, Laing shares her realisation that art 'medicated my feelings of loneliness, giving me a sense of the potential beauty present in a frank declaration that one is human and as such subject to need'. The Lonely City is a beautifully written meditation on what it is to be lonely, and on the healing power of art.