How to Be Alone
From the National Book Award-winning author of The Corrections, a collection of essays that reveal him to be one of our sharpest, toughest, and most entertaining social criticsWhile the essays in this collection range in subject matter from the sex-advice industry to the way a supermax prison...
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From the National Book Award-winning author of The Corrections, a collection of essays that reveal him to be one of our sharpest, toughest, and most entertaining social criticsWhile the essays in this collection range in subject matter from the sex-advice industry to the way a supermax prison works, each one wrestles with the essential themes of Franzen's writing: the erosion of civil life and private dignity; and the hidden persistence of loneliness in postmodern, imperial America. Reprinted here for the first time is Franzen’s controversial l996 investigation of the fate of the American novel in what became known as "the Harper's essay," as well as his award-winning narrative of his father's struggle with Alzheimer's disease, and a rueful account of his brief tenure as an Oprah Winfrey author.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780312422165 (0312422164)
Publish date: October 1st 2003
Publisher: Picador
Pages no: 320
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Autobiography,
Memoir,
Writing,
Essays,
Academic,
Literature,
American,
Culture,
Philosophy,
College,
Thriller,
Short Stories
At this point, this collection of essays is a little, well, historical. I really found the examination of how culture and media and technology and literature terribly interesting -- some of those thoughts are still floating around in cyberspace today. But mostly I just enjoyed these essays for the...
The book started very promising with My father's brain which I thought was great and got me excitedly adding more Franzen stuff to my Goodreads pile.After that... meh. I should probably attempt to write my review as flawless as Franzen (well, I'm not going to succeed in that) just to weigh up to som...
Aside from essays involving Alzheimer's disease, cigarettes, and the fall of the Chicago Post Office, the bulk of the other essays centered on reading and/or writing (especially literary fiction), and about his own, personal, inner conflicts, both of those coming into play together at times. For ex...
Rating: 3* of fiveThe Book Description: Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections was the best-loved and most-written-about novel of 2001. Nearly every in-depth review of it discussed what became known as "The Harper's Essay," Franzen's controversial 1996 investigation of the fate of the American novel. Th...
Franzen is tetchy and depressed and generally pessimistic about the world, but not in a way that's always interesting to read.
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