''Farther Away'' is a 2012 collection of essays by the American writer
Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pr ...
.
Essays
Most of the essays previously appeared in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', and others.
Table of contents
*â
Pain Won't Kill You€ť (2011)
*â
Farther Away€ť (2011)
*â
€ť (2010)
*“Hornets” (2010)
*“The Ugly Mediterranean” (2010)
*“The Corn King” (2010)
*“On Autobiographical Fiction” (2009)
*“I Just Called To Say I Love You” (2008)
*“David Foster Wallace” (2008)
*“The Chinese Puffin” (2008)
*“On The Laughing Policeman” (2008)
*“Comma-Then” (2008)
*“Authentic But Horrible” (2007)
*“Interview With New York State” (2007)
*“Love Letters” (2005)
*“Our Little Planet” (2005)
*“The End Of The Binge” (2005)
*“What Makes You So Sure You're Not The Evil One Yourself?” (2004)
*“Our Relations : A Brief History” (2004)
*“The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit” (2002)
*“No End To It” (1998)
Reception
In
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
, the essayist
Phillip Lopate
Phillip Lopate (born 1943) is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is the younger brother of radio host Leonard Lopate.
Early life
Phillip Lopate was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a BA degr ...
wrote that the pieces "demonstrate
ranzen'sgenerosity, humanity and love of fiction, as well as his own preference for the morally complex over the sentimental. The struggle to be a good human being, against the pulls of solipsism and
narcissism
Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others.
Narcissism exists on a co ...
, can be glimpsed in every page of these essays, which if nothing else offer a telling battle report from within the consciousness of one of our major novelists."
In the English newspaper ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', writer and critic
Geoff Dyer
Geoff Dyer (born 5 June 1958) is an English author. He has written a number of novels and non-fiction books, some of which have won literary awards.
Personal background
Dyer was born and raised in Cheltenham, England, as the only child of a ...
found advances over Franzen's previous essay collection, ''
How to Be Alone'': "Franzen seems more gregarious than he was in ''How to be Alone''...These essays are exemplary instances of reader-friendly criticism in that they can be studied profitably even by people unfamiliar with the works in question. They also display
related side-effect of becoming a great novelist. That the great novelist is, by default, a great reader...One way or another, the essays in ''Farther Away'' are attempts to enlarge the place where literature, and the responsiveness to it, can be preserved."
References
External links
Publisher Website
{{Jonathan Franzen
2012 non-fiction books
American essay collections
Works by Jonathan Franzen
Farrar, Straus and Giroux books