How to Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen
Why I grabbed it: Don’t remember | Genre: Essay Collection | Recommended: Nope
I have no idea why I put this collection of essays on my reading list but it was ok. There were a handful of stories that were phoned in, ‘Lost in the Mail’ comes to mind and I guess I forgot the others. I found the first three compelling though. ‘My Fathers Brain’, which can be found online, pulled me in and just made me sympathize with the author and his mother. ‘Imperial Bedroom’ is now dated as hell but in the face of the Mueller report there is a stark contrast. I was surprised how well it held up on the face of today’s privacy landscape. ‘Why Bother?’ starts and and holds a whining, lamenting, and grumpy survey of the novels place in the modern world of media. Even though it rambles there were spots that made me perk up, touching on diversity, cross pollination of ideas, and the common threads that make us readers. It was more interesting than unfocused. If you have time I’d pick at the first three essays, but the whole book might not be worth your time.