I disagree with the description on the back of this book, which says that one of Jonathan Franzen’s “essential themes” is “the hidden persistence of loneliness in postmodern, imperial America.” Rather, it seems to me that in every one of these essays, the narrator discovers that he’s not alone after all. Loneliness is not persistent – it is a state that we enter and leave. It’s complex, interesting, nuanced. I also contend that How to Be Alone is a misleading title for a book that doesn’t show us how to be alone. Who made these decisions? Who should make them?
Franzen, Jonathan. “Books in Bed.” How to Be Alone: Essays. Picador, 2003, p. 273.