Jonathan Franzen

Earlier versions of most of these essays first appeared in Details, Graywolf Forum, Harper's, and The New Yorker. The essay "Mr. Difficult" has been added to this paperback edition, and the essay "Scavenging" has been modified.

essays

How to be alone

Donald

These essays were written right at the point of no return for internet/digital/whatever culture. It's amazing how essays about technology from the mid-90's feel so outdated. It feels silly saying this, but I agreed with the essays more than I'd like to admit. I have never read Franzen's fiction, but every time I've heard his voice it makes me want to scream. There is a nagging earnestness that makes it seem like he's disingenuous. I can't really put my finger on it. Despite that, the essays are great.

The best essay is a short one about the supermax prison/CMU in Florence, Colorado. Franzen really captures the sterilized horror of it all.

The funniest/most absurd essay is about the postal service in Chicago. Insanity!

Colton Ray

Will Vunderink

Rowan Myers

Reiko Fu

Courtney Woolery

Gustav Vallin

Benjamin Erwin

Giovanni Garcia-Fenech 

Christopher McCaffery

Gabriel Jönsson

Caleb Yarian

Sean McGilvray

Eva Talmadge

'The Harper's Essay' is reprinted in this volume alongside personal essays and painstaking, often funny reportage. Although his subjects range widely, each piece wrestles with the erosion of civic life and private dignity, and the hidden persistence of loneliness in postmodern America.

How to be Alone

João Luís Zamith

Grady Scott Weston

How to be alone essays

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