Part I. In the world. Northwest London blues ; Elegy for a country's seasons ; Fences : a Brexit diary ; On optimism and despair --
Part II. In the audience. Generation why? ; The house that Hova built ; Brother from another mother ; Some notes on attunement ; Window on the will : Anomalisa ; Dance lessons for writers --
Part III. In the gallery. Killing Orson Welles at midnight ; Flaming June ; "Crazy they call me" : on looking at Jerry Dantzic's photos of Billie Holiday ; Alte Frau by Balthasar Denner ; Mark Bradford's Niagara ; A bird of few words : narrative mysteries in the paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye ; The tattered ruins of the map : on Sarah Sze's Centrifuge ; Getting in and out --
Part IV. On the bookshelf. Crash by J.G. Ballard ; The Buddha of suburbia by Hanif Kureishi ; Notes on NW ; The Harper's columns ; The I who is not me --
Part V. Feel free. Life-writing ; The bathroom ; Man versus corpse ; Meet Justin Bieber! ; Love in the gardens ; The shadow of ideas ; Find your beach ; Joy --