In a world that demands faith in progress and growth, Limbo is a companion for the stuck, the isolated, delayed, stranded and those in the dark. Fusing memoir with a meditation on creative block and a cultural history of limbo, Dan Fox considers the role that fallow periods and states of inbetween play in art and life. Limbo is an essay about getting by when you can’t get along, employing a cast of artists, ghosts and sailors – including the author’s older brother who, in 1985, left England for good to sail the world – to reflect on the creative, emotional and political consequences of being stuck, and its opposites. From the Headington Shark to radical behavioural experiments, from life aboard a container ship to Sun Ra’s cosmology, Limbo argues that there can be no growth without stagnancy, no movement without inactivity, and no progress without refusal.
The White Review Books of the Year 2018 | The Irish Times Books of 2018
‘Dan Fox has produced a fascinating work of understated excellence, particularly given his starting point. Eloquent in its consideration of the subjects it focuses on and elegant in the brevity and precision of its chapters, Limbo gets to the heart of the matter and gives you something to think about.’
— Pendora Magazine
‘Open-spirited and beautifully written.’
— Kate Wakeling, TLS
‘Limbo mixes the historical, the conceptual and the anecdotal in a very elegant way, and it is a testament to Fox’s ability as a writer that he can make, in what is a relatively short book, such disparate ideas and stories fall into place in a narrative that feels really clear and organised. … While obviously an astute cultural theorist who can draw on a truly diverse range of sources, it is the personal element of Limbo brings out the storyteller in Fox. … it is in writing about his family relationships, and the transition through adolescence into adulthood, which brings the true depth to the book.’
— The London Magazine
‘Every page of this small book surprises you and makes you think.’
— Dan Kois, Slate
‘I felt understood reading Dan Fox’s Limbo, a book-length essay for the unsteady and unsure among us.’
— Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them a Good Time
Dan Fox is a writer, musician, and filmmaker. He is based in New York.