How to Be Alone Essays

by Franzen, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780312422165
• ISBN10: 0312422164
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

From the National Book Award-winning author ofThe Corrections, a collection of essays that reveal him to be one of our sharpest, toughest, and most entertaining social critics While 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. Jonathan Franzenwon the National Book Award for fiction forThe Correctionsin 2001, and is the author of two other critically acclaimed novelsThe Twenty-Seventh CityandStrong Motion. He is a frequent contributor toThe New Yorker. He lives in New York City. ANew York TimesNotable Book While the essays in the 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 1996 investigation of the fate of the American novel in what became known as "theHarper'sessay," 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. This paperback edition ofHow to Be Alonehas been revised and expanded to include the recent essay "Mr. Difficult." "How to Be Alonereaffirms the novelist's prerogative to engage in social criticism. And Franzen's calm, passionate critical authority derives not from any special expertise in criminology, neurology, or post science, but rather from the fact that, as a novelist, he is principally concerned with the messy architecture of the self."The New York Times Book Review "Captivating . . . The welcome paradox inHow to Be Aloneis that the reader need not feel isolated at all. The author makes himself a colorful presence throughout these essays complete with his slew of improbably attractive quirks . . . Mr. Franzen frequently celebrates the realization that being alone with a good book is the very opposite of an isolating experience. With considerable wit and minimal curmudgeonliness, he also laments the scarcity of such experiences in a culture that is co-opted and consumed by non-literary temptations. He admits to being enough of a purist to think longingly of times when 'a new book by Thackeray or William Dean Howells was anticipated with the kind of fever that a late-December film release inspires today' . . . This collection emphasizes his elegance, acumen, and daring as an essayist, with an intellectually engaging self-awareness as formidable as Joan Didion's."Janet Maslin,The New York Times "How to Be Alonereaffirms the novelist's prerogative to engage in social criticism. And Franzen's calm, passionate critical authority derives not from any special expertise in criminology, neurology, or post science, but rather from the fact that, as a novelist, he is principally concerned with the messy architecture of the self."The New York Times Book Review "Franzen is one of the most nuanced minds at work in the dwindling republic of letters . . . Do good books matter anymore? This one does."Time "A graceful meditation on reading and writin

Author Biography

Jonathan Franzen won the National Book Award for fiction for The Corrections in 2001, and is the author of two other critically acclaimed novels, The Twenty-Seventh City and Strong Motion. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and Harper's.

Table of Contents

"A Word About This Book"

"My Father's Brain"

"Imperial Bedroom"

"Why Bother"

"Lost in the Mail"

"Erika Imports"

"Sifting the Ashes"

"A Reader in Exile"

"First City"

"Scavenging"

"Control Units"

"Mr. Difficult"

"Books in Bed"

"Meet Me in St. Louis"

"Inauguration Day, January 2001"