I've been very interested lately in the subject of loneliness. As someone who covets a fair amount of solitude in general, happens to be an introvert and very much introspective, it is a blurry line sometimes between choice and situation. Sometimes the solitariness is welcome and other times feels thrust upon, but to say the word "lonely" tends to color a person's perspective and attitude as the word lonely often has a very negative connotation. So I am going to begin from Olivia Laing's list of Ten Books About Loneliness (borrowing a few titles, but then branching out into my own) and let her speak since she does it so well.
"I'm fascinated by loneliness – what it looks like, how it feels, what it does to people – and it seems I'm not the only one. There is a substantial literature of loneliness; unsurprising considering that separation and connection are among the abiding preoccupations of the novel."
"The strange, almost magical thing about these books is that in examining loneliness they also serve as an antidote to it. Loneliness is by its nature a profoundly isolating experience. But if a novel or memoir succeeds in mapping its icy regions, then it can alleviate something of the acute, pain of feeling islanded, cut off from the world at large."
Here is my own hodgepodge list of books about solitude and loneliness.
Good Morning, Midnight, by Jean Rhys -- "Sasha Jensen has returned to Paris, the city of both her happiest moments and her most desperate. Her past lies in wait for her in cafes, bars, and dress shops, blurring all distinctions between nightmare and reality. When she is picked up by a young man, she begins to feel that she is still capable of desires and emotions. Few encounters in fiction have been so brilliantly conceived, and few have come to a more unforgettable end."
Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame -- (I am borrowing the description from Olivia's list as it struck me as something I want to read and so am waiting for a library copy to arrive). "The New Zealand novelist Janet Frame is best known for her three-volume memoir, later filmed as An Angel at My Table by Jane Campion. As a young woman, she spent years in a mental hospital after a breakdown was misdiagnosed as schizophrenia. There she was given 200 rounds of electro-shock therapy, and only released when her first collection of short stories won a national award. She wrote this spare, poetic, immensely distressing novel a few years later, while living in London. It was based closely on real events, and at her request not published in her lifetime. It deals with a single weekend in the life of Grace: like the author a cripplingly shy New Zealand novelist abroad in chilly 1960s England. Grace is mortified by her own sense of ugliness and absolutely incapable of ordinary social demands. I don't think I've ever read anything that deals so beautifully with extreme self-consciousness and the isolation it produces."
Lonely: Learning to Live with Solitude by Emily White -- "In a boldly honest and elegantly written memoir—the first on this topic—Emily White reveals the painful and sometimes debilitating experience of living with chronic loneliness."
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton -- I love Mary Sarton. I read this a few years back and wrote about it here, and it is one I am happy to revisit.
An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel -- ". . . a coming-of-age tale set in Seventies London.It is London, 1970. Carmel McBain, in her first term at university, has cut free of her childhood roots in the north. Among the gossiping, flirtatious girls of Tonbridge Hall, she begins her experiments in life and love. But the year turns. The mini-skirt falls out of style and an era of concealment begins. Carmel's world darkens, and tragedy waits in the wings."
The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti -- "For fans of Elena Ferrante and Paulo Coelho comes the international sensation about the friendship between two young Italian boys from different backgrounds and how their connection evolves and challenges them throughout their lives. Pietro is a lonely boy living in Milan. With his parents becoming more distant each day, the only thing the family shares is their love for the mountains that surround Italy. While on vacation at the foot of the Aosta Valley, Pietro meets Bruno, an adventurous, spirited local boy. Together they spend many summers exploring the mountains’ meadows and peaks and discover the similarities and differences in their lives, their backgrounds, and their futures. The two boys come to find the true meaning of friendship and camaraderie, even as their divergent paths in life—Bruno’s in the mountains, Pietro’s across the world—test the strength and meaning of their connection."
Migrations to Solitude: The Quest for Privacy in a Crowded World by Sue Halpern -- "Why do we often long for solitude but dread loneliness? What happens when the walls we build around ourselves are suddenly removed—or made impenetrable? If privacy is something we can count as a basic right, why are our laws, technology, and lifestyles increasingly chipping it away? "
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym -- "This is the story of four people in late middle-age - Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia - whose chief point of contact is that they work in the same office and they suffer the same problem - loneliness. Lovingly, poignantly, satirically and with much humour, Pym conducts us through their small lives and the facade they erect to defend themselves against the outside world." I loved this book when I read it last year!
A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor -- "More than a history or travel journal, however, this beautiful short book is a meditation on the meaning of silence and solitude for modern life. Leigh Fermor writes, “In the seclusion of a cell—an existence whose quietness is only varied by the silent meals, the solemnity of ritual, and long solitary walks in the woods—the troubled waters of the mind grow still and clear, and much that is hidden away and all that clouds it floats to the surface and can be skimmed away; and after a time one reaches a state of peace that is unthought of in the ordinary world." I loved this one, too, and it is time for a reread!
A Start in Life by Anita Brookner -- "Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.' Ruth Weiss, an academic, is beautiful, intelligent and lonely. Studying the heroines of Balzac in order to discover where her own childhood and adult life has gone awry, she seeks not salvation but enlightenment. Yet in revisiting her London upbringing, her friendships and doomed Parisian love affairs, she wonders if perhaps there might not be a chance for a new start in life . . .
Eggshells by Catriona Lally -- "Vivian doesn't feel like she fits in - and never has. As a child, she was so whimsical that her parents told her she was 'left by fairies.' Now, living alone in Dublin, the neighbors treat her like she's crazy, her older sister condescends to her, social workers seem to have registered her as troubled, and she hasn't a friend in the world."
Stations of Still Creek by Barbara Scott -- " . . . the tale of a woman's personal journey and the healing inspiration she finds in the natural settings surrounding her. In a quest for personal and creative truth, Barbara Scot moves to her country cabin at Still Creek, in a National Forest preserve in the shadow of Mount Hood, to be still and thoughtful, in spite of the turmoil of a strained marriage.
Scot takes us on a spiritual journey incorporating seven inspiring natural formations - the Stations of Still Creek: The Old Growth Sculpture; The Burned-Out Cedar Snag; The Towering Maples; The Red Roots Station; The Four Alders with Perfect Posture; Maiden-Hair Fern Point; and The Green Cathedral." I am hoping to go to Colorado in May and plan on taking this with me to read while there!
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa -- " . . . quietly devastating novel about the burden of the past and the redemptive power of friendship." A lovely, gentle read!
As always, if you have a good book you can suggest on the themes of loneliness and solitude do please share. I have a few others I could have listed and may tack them on later!