{"product_id":"2940169282849","title":"How to Be Alone: Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003ePassionate, strong-minded nonfiction from the National Book Award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Correction\u003c\/i\u003es.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJonathan Franzen's \u003ci\u003eThe Corrections\u003c\/i\u003e was the best-loved and most-written-about novel of 2001. Nearly every in-depth review of it discussed what became known as \"The \u003ci\u003eHarper's\u003c\/i\u003e Essay,\" Franzen's controversial 1996 investigation of the fate of the American novel.  This essay is reprinted for the first time in \u003ci\u003eHow to be Alone\u003c\/i\u003e, along with the personal essays and the dead-on reportage that earned Franzen a wide readership before the success of\u003ci\u003e The Corrections\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs a collection, these essays record what Franzen calls \"a movement away from an angry and frightened isolation toward an acceptanceamp;mdash;even a celebrationamp;mdash;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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Macmillan Audio production.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Audio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47116610207984,"sku":"2940169282849","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169282849_p0.jpg?v=1763678099","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169282849","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}