Jonathan Franzen

#hardcover #fiction #anthology #essays #critic

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Wisconsin

Passionate, strong-minded nonfiction from the National Book Award-winning author of The Correction s Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections was the best-loved and most-written-about novel of 2001. Nearly every in-depth review of it discussed what became known as "The Harper's Essay," Franzen's controversial 1996 investigation of the fate of the American novel. This essay is reprinted for the first time in How to be Alone, along with the personal essays and the dead-on reportage that earned Franzen a wide readership before the success of The Corrections. Although his subjects range from the sex-advice industry to the way a supermax prison works, each piece wrestles with familiar themes of Franzen's writing: the erosion of civic life and private dignity and the hidden persistence of loneliness in postmodern, imperial America. Recent pieces include a moving essay on his father's stuggle with Alzheimer's disease (which has already been reprinted around the world) and a rueful account of Franzen's brief tenure as an Oprah Winfrey author.As a collection, these essays record what Franzen calls "a movement away from an angry and frightened isolation toward an acceptance - even a celebration - of being a reader and a writer." At the same time they show the wry distrust of the claims of technology and psychology, the love-hate relationship with consumerism, and the subversive belief in the tragic shape of the individual life that help make Franzen one of our sharpest, toughest, and most entertaining social critics.

How to Be Alone

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Essays

From the National Book Award-winning author of The 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.

Category - Fiction / General Fiction

Format - Hardcover

Condition - Excellent

Listed - A year ago

Views - 13

Wishes - 1

Ships From - Wisconsin

Est. Publication Date - Oct 2002

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Category - Fiction / General Fiction

Format - Hardcover

Condition - Excellent

Listed - A year ago

Views - 13

Wishes - 1

Ships From - Wisconsin

Est. Publication Date - Oct 2002

Seller Description

Additional Information

Publisher Description

Tags

How to Be Alone

By:

$3.50

Condition

Format

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How to Be Alone

By: Jonathan Franzen

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