Passionate, independent-minded nonfiction from the international bestselling author of THE CORRECTIONS. 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 look at the fate of the novel. This essay is reprinted for the first time in HOW TO BE ALONE, alongside the personal essays and painstaking, often funny 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 struggle with Alzheimer's disease 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 the sharpest, toughest-minded, and most entertaining social critics at work today.

About the Author

Jonathan Franzen is the author of THE TWENTY- SEVENTH, STRONG MOTION and THE CORRECTIONS. His fiction and nonfiction appear frequently in the NEW YORKER and HARPER'S, and he was named one of the best American novelists under forty by GRANTA and the NEW YORKER. He lives in New York City.

Prizes

Passionate, independent-minded nonfiction from the international bestselling author of 'The Corrections'. / A brilliant selection of personal essays and thought-provoking insights on being a reader and writer from the author of the award-winning 'The Corrections'. / 'The Corrections' was winner of the National Book Award in 2001 and has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone. / 'The Corrections' was a New York Times No.1 Bestseller. / Competition: The War Against Cliche by Martin Amis; Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie

Reviews

In this collection of 12 essays, Franzen, the author of the most-written-about novel of 2001, The Corrections, focuses on the growing commercialism and alienation in postmodern America. Presenting a number of variations on that theme, he addresses such personal topics as his smoking habit, an interview for the Oprah show, and his father's battle with Alzheimer's, a poignant account of the disease's impact on his family. In addition, pieces on the shortcomings of the Chicago post office, the supermax prison in Colorado, and the isolating effects of an increasingly computerized society show Franzen's skill as a journalist and social critic. Also included is "Why Bother?," a revision of his 1996 critique of the American novel. He has cut this version considerably and softened its strident tone, although, as he points out, "there's still plenty to be mad and scared about." This book will appeal to serious readers who appreciate penetrating yet entertaining social commentary. Enthusiastically recommended for public and academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/02.] Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

'Compelling and invigorating.' The Times 'A passionate and compelling piece of work ! Each page is studded with irresistible writing which leaves you breathless for more. Franzen's strength is his ability to combine a rigorous intellectual appraoch with an upbeat energy, using language which touches the heart as surely as the head.' Time Out 'Oprah was right. Franzen is conflicted. That's what makes him a trustworthy, sceptical essayist.' FT

Bestselling and National Book Award- winning novelist Franzen (The Corrections) urges readers to say no to drugs, but not the pharmaceutical kind; his opiates are those "technology offers in the form of TV, pop culture, and endless gadgetry," soporifics that "are addictive and in the long run only make society's problems worse." Franzen's just as hard on intellectual conformity-on academe's canonization of third-rate but politically correct novels, for example. As a serious artist, he knows that the deck is stacked against him; after all, a great novel is a kind of antiproduct, one that is "inexpensive, infinitely reusable, and, worst of all, unimprovable." The problem, he says, is that instead of being allowed to enjoy our solitary uniqueness we are all being turned into one gigantic corporate-created entity, a point Franzen makes tellingly when he says that while a black lesbian New Yorker and a Southern Baptist Georgian might appear totally different, the truth is that both "watch Letterman every night, both are struggling to find health insurance... both play Lotto, both dream of fifteen minutes of fame, both are taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and both have a guilty crush on Uma Thurman." These canny, well-researched essays (which have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's and elsewhere) range over a variety of subjects, from the antiquated and bizarrely inefficient Chicago postal system to the bizarrely efficient new privatized federal prisons, but they are united by a single passionate insistence that, in a cookie-cutter world, people who want simply to be themselves should have the right to do so. (Oct.) Forecast: This cultural critique is unlikely to sell like The Corrections, but anyone who missed the controversial 1996 "Harper's essay" can catch it here in slightly revised form, and Franzen's many admirers will buy it. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.