''How to Be Alone'' is a 2002 book collecting fourteen essays by 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 ''

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'', ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', ''

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'', and ''Graywolf Forum''. In the introductory essay, "A Word About This Book," Franzen notes that the "underlying investigation in all these essays" is "the problem of preserving individuality and complexity in a noisy and distracting mass culture: the question of how to be alone."

"The Harper's Essay" and "My Father's Brain"

Included in the collection are "Why Bother?"—a revised version of "Perchance to Dream," Franzen's infamous 1996 ''Harper's'' essay on the novelists' obligation to social realism—and "My Father's Brain," nominated for a 2002

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. The latter essay details the elder Franzen's struggle with

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. These experiences informed Franzen’s writing of the character Alfred Lambert in his 2001 novel '' The Corrections''.

Later Editions

The 2003

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edition includes a fifteenth essay, " Mr. Difficult", on the subject of "difficult" fiction in general and the novels of William Gaddis in particular. To accommodate this additional essay, the essay “Scavenging” was substantially edited.

*"A Word About This Book" *"My Father's Brain" (an edited version appeared in ''

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''; see External links) *"Imperial Bedroom" *" Why Bother?" *"Lost in the Mail" *"Erika Imports" *"Sifting the Ashes" *"The Reader in Exile" *"First City" *"Scavenging" *"Control Units" *"Books in Bed" *"Meet Me in St. Louis" *"Inauguration Day, January 2001" :''Note: In the trade paperback edition "Mr. Difficult" was inserted after "Control Units".''

Reception

Janet Maslin, in ''

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'', called the book "captivating but uneven"—"this collection emphasizes ranzen'selegance, acumen and daring as an essayist, with an intellectually engaging self-awareness as formidable as Joan Didion's. He's funny, too." Maslin praised the essay "My Father's Brain" as "a tough, haunting account." 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 ...

'', critic

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

discussed Franzen's, "calm, passionate critical authority." Scott closed,

"At present, in Franzen's humane, pessimistic view, our individuality is under assault from all quarters, and the novel is part of a web of modern institutions—along with the daily mail, the industrial city and the idea of a democratic public sphere—undermined by the irresistible (that is, both unstoppable and undeniably attractive) forces of standardization and privatization. To point this out is, inevitably, to sound like something of a crank, and the accomplishment of this book is to offer its cranky author and his like-minded readers a suitably contradictory and ambiguous consolation: we're not alone."A.O. Scott, "Vaunting Ambivalence," ''The New York Times Book Review'', November 10, 2002.

References

External links