The opposite of loneliness : essays and stories
Record details
- ISBN: 9781476753614 (hardback)
- ISBN: 147675361X (hardback)
- ISBN: 9781476753911 (trade paperback)
- ISBN: 1476753911 (trade paperback)
- Physical Description: xxiii, 208 pages ; 22 cm
- Edition: First Scribner hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Scribner, 2014.
Content descriptions
Formatted Contents Note: | Introduction / by Anne Fadiman -- The opposite of loneliness -- Fiction: Cold pastoral ; Winter break ; Reading aloud ; The ingenue ; The Emerald City ; Baggage claim ; Hail, full of grace ; Sclerotherapy ; Challenger deep -- Nonfiction: Stability in motion ; Why we care about whales ; Against the grain ; Putting the "fun" back in eschatology ; I kill for money ; Even artichokes have doubts ; The art of observation ; Song for the special. |
Search for related items by subject
Genre: | Short stories, American. American essays. Short stories. |
Available copies
- 9 of 9 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Fort Nelson Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 9 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fort Nelson Public Library | 818.609 KEE (Text) | 35246000879153 | Non-Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2014 February #2
A collection of essays and short stories by a Yale graduate whose untimely death at age 22 cut short a promising journalistic and literary career. Keegan graduated from Yale as a literary golden girl with a position awaiting her at the New Yorker. But before she could even begin her job, she was killed in a car crash. This book brings together a sampling of some of Keegan's fiction and nonfiction in homage to what could have been had this remarkable young woman lived to fulfill her potential. The first section brings together short stories that showcase Keegan's ability to probe the murky, often unspoken emotional depths that haunt all relationships with fearlessness, lucidity and sensitivity. Not all of her fictional pieces, which focus primarily on exploring male/female and family dynamics, are equally strong. But they are always thoughtful, intelligent, and surprising and reveal a writer eager to find her literary voice by taking risks with both form and content. At their best, they are ferociously insightful. The second section includes essays, most of which appeared in the Yale Daily News or the Yale Herald. With wit, style and verve, Keegan explores everything from her lifelong struggle with celiac disease to a day in the life of a professional exterminator. Her most affecting pieces, however, are about the members of her own generation, many of whom feel strong, sometimes-overwhelming social pressure to seek validation in well-paying but unfulfilling jobs. "We can't, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility," she writes, "because in the end, it's all we have." As humane as it is sympathetic, Keegan's work is a poignantly inspiring reminder of what is possible in the pursuit of dreams. A well-deserved tribute to a talented young writer. Copyright Kirkus 2014 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2013 December #2
Journalist and playwright (whose musical Independents was a prize-winning selection in the 2012 New York International Fringe Festival) Keegan's posthumous collection, with an introduction by Anne Fadiman, serves as a tribute to the author, who died in a car crash in 2012, five days after graduating Yale University. The book illuminates the optimism and neurosis felt by new grads everywhere: "The notion that it's too late to do anything is comical. It's hilarious. We're graduating college. We're so young." Though the collection features more fiction than non-, the author's voice is similar in both. Her essays hide musings about her life and relationships under innocuous subjects: her mother's over-protectiveness about Keegan's celiac disease, for example, leads Keegan to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a parent. In her fiction, the thematic preoccupations are closer to the surface, such as the relationship definition problems a girl faces when the boy she was "involved, of course, but not associated " suddenly dies. Like every millennial who's seen irony elevated to an art form, Keegan brings self-awareness to the collective insecurity of her peers, even as she captures it with a precision that only comes from someone who feels it too. How unfortunate that she will never know the value readers will find in her work. Agent: Lane Zachary, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. (Apr.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2013 PWxyz LLC