A meditative experiment in homing in and letting go, Figure It Out is a scenic nonfiction stroll that seems aimless in gait yet always lands in an art/pop/humanist destination—each one a majestic, impressionistic backdrop. Though not a memoir in its strictest sense, the collection paints a tapestry of Wayne Koestenbaum’s taste, as the essays span his most compelling streams of consciousness: porn, Shakespeare, words we should Google, his own masculinity, and, of course, celebrity faces. The result is a portrait of an art critic writing in the midst of his ideal medium, and at the height of his critical powers.
Figure It Out: Essays, by Wayne Koestenbaum. Published by Soft Skull Press. The editor is Yuka Igarashi; the agent is P. J. Mark at Janklow & Nesbit. Figure It Out is a finalist for the Publishing Triangle’s Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction; the winner will be announced on May 12.