The Longing for Less Excerpts

Harper’s, Dec 2019 issue, “Being in Nothingness”: an excerpt from the book’s fourth chapter, Shadow.

The Guardian, Jan 3 2020 paper, “The empty promises of Marie Kondo and the craze for minimalism”: an excerpt from the book’s first chapter, Reduction.

Artnet.com, Jan 8 2020, “How Marfa Went From Donald Judd’s Anti-Commercial Escape to a Mecca of Luxury Minimalism”: an excerpt from the book’s second chapter, Emptiness.

Essays also appeared in Paris Review and New York Times Opinion.

Notices

"More than just a story of an abiding cultural preoccupation, The Longing For Less peels back the commodified husk of minimalism to reveal something surprising and thoroughly alive." — Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing

“In its lightly worn learning and serious grace, The Longing for Less functions both as a corrective to our shallow form of minimalism and as a guide to a deeper form that still has a great deal to teach us.” — Brian Phillips, author of Impossible Owls

“I'm no minimalist, but I am not immune to Kyle Chayka's searching, subtle, and finally quite moving exploration of the beauty of less.” — Lucy Sante, author of Low Life

“Kyle Chayka gently urges us to reconsider our inheritance of the minimalist legacy while offering nuanced, profound, and then outright dazzling angles on a subject as loved as it is overexposed.” — Paola Antonelli, curator of design at the Museum of Modern Art

“What if the whole voguish notion of minimalism is a capitalist ruse?” — Wall Street Journal Magazine

“…explores not only how one might live in a minimalist fashion, but in fact where the idea comes from and how it's changed and adapted over the ages.” — Town & Country

Reviews

“The minimalism that Chayka seeks encourages not an escape from the world but a deeper engagement with it.” — Jennifer Szalai, New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

“Arrives not as an addition to the minimalist canon but as a corrective to it.” — Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker

“An intriguing deep dive into the many manifestations of minimalism. A superb outing from a gifted young critic that will spark joy in many readers.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Alluringly titled, Chayka's insightful book connects a wide array of thought-provoking approaches to the concept of less is more.” — Booklist

Reviews of the book have also appeared in The New Republic, Slate, LARB, Wall Street Journal, LitHub, and Washington City Paper.

Interviews about the book appeared in publications including Vanity Fair and Hazlitt.