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The Mystery of Perception: A Conversation with Lynne Tillman
Candid and instantly engaging, this will be the go-to introduction to Lynne Tillman for readers everywhere and is a must have for any fan. A breakthrough for the legendary underground icon, who speaks about her life as a writer and her work in a stunning and candid conversation with writer and critic Taylor Lewandowski.
A book length interview with Lynne Tillman, beloved icon of underground American literature, that spans memoir, scrapbook, cultural criticism, and history in a lively, compact package. Critic Taylor Lewandowski strings together her many lives and worlds, from a Long Island childhood, to her colorful Downtown NYC life in the 1970’s and 80’s, to her psychoanalytical fiction, to her historicizing New York City with Stephen Shore’s Factory photographs and Jeannette Watson’s Books & Co., to her “Madame Realism” art criticism.
Lynne Tillman has devoted her life to using language as a tool to synthesize the chaos of our world into intricate, fragmented pieces about perception, gender, photography, family, American history, and much more, and this pocket-size primer is a fascinating narrative unto itself that will be the jumping off point to her vast oeuvre from now on.
Anyone with a passing interest in 20th century culture will find fascinating her run-ins with the likes of Simone de Beauvoir, Méret Oppenheim, Charles Henri Ford, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, John Cale, Paula Fox, Barbara Kruger and Kathy Acker, just to name a few. Her enthusiasm, curiosity, and humor serve as a refreshing model, or in her words, an “image” which has created an alternative path for writers. As she says in the interview, “I know myself in relation to others.” Featuring beautiful, full color photographs and contributions from Andrew Durbin, Emily LaBarge, and Claire Donato, this is the ideal introduction into the encyclopedic, obsessive mind of Lynne Tillman.
A book length interview with Lynne Tillman, beloved icon of underground American literature, that spans memoir, scrapbook, cultural criticism, and history in a lively, compact package. Critic Taylor Lewandowski strings together her many lives and worlds, from a Long Island childhood, to her colorful Downtown NYC life in the 1970’s and 80’s, to her psychoanalytical fiction, to her historicizing New York City with Stephen Shore’s Factory photographs and Jeannette Watson’s Books & Co., to her “Madame Realism” art criticism.
Lynne Tillman has devoted her life to using language as a tool to synthesize the chaos of our world into intricate, fragmented pieces about perception, gender, photography, family, American history, and much more, and this pocket-size primer is a fascinating narrative unto itself that will be the jumping off point to her vast oeuvre from now on.
Anyone with a passing interest in 20th century culture will find fascinating her run-ins with the likes of Simone de Beauvoir, Méret Oppenheim, Charles Henri Ford, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, John Cale, Paula Fox, Barbara Kruger and Kathy Acker, just to name a few. Her enthusiasm, curiosity, and humor serve as a refreshing model, or in her words, an “image” which has created an alternative path for writers. As she says in the interview, “I know myself in relation to others.” Featuring beautiful, full color photographs and contributions from Andrew Durbin, Emily LaBarge, and Claire Donato, this is the ideal introduction into the encyclopedic, obsessive mind of Lynne Tillman.
128 pages, Paperback
Published June 17, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 6, 2025
Three short Lynne Tillman quotes from The Mystery of Perception:
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“It’s odd, insecurity. Almost every artist I know is insecure. For one thing, you’re making something that you want to think is “good,” but you don’t know. Standards shift, the chose in one moment are unchosen in another. Some get prizes, some don’t. Some get lauded in print, others ignored or smashed. People go on. Writers write, and feel, at least I do, that nothing is alive without writing.”
*
“A friend of mine, I don’t know how many years ago, said, ‘How do you write your dialogue? Nobody talks like that.’ I said, ‘I write the way I want people to talk.’”
*
“Before we get to that I want to say the word “courage” is in the word “encourage.” I think about that a lot. For me to develop courage, I needed to be encouraged.”
*
*
“It’s odd, insecurity. Almost every artist I know is insecure. For one thing, you’re making something that you want to think is “good,” but you don’t know. Standards shift, the chose in one moment are unchosen in another. Some get prizes, some don’t. Some get lauded in print, others ignored or smashed. People go on. Writers write, and feel, at least I do, that nothing is alive without writing.”
*
“A friend of mine, I don’t know how many years ago, said, ‘How do you write your dialogue? Nobody talks like that.’ I said, ‘I write the way I want people to talk.’”
*
“Before we get to that I want to say the word “courage” is in the word “encourage.” I think about that a lot. For me to develop courage, I needed to be encouraged.”
*
July 26, 2025
no true self!
no true self!
no true self!
no true self!
no true self!
August 10, 2025
Lynne is a relic and Taylor is the most underrated literary historian of the 21st century.
January 22, 2026
The whole book is an interview with Lynne. I loveddd the conversation so much. So so fun to read and she is such an amazing and interesting woman. Felt super inspired after reading this.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews