Book Review: "How To Be Alone" by Jonathan Franzen

How To Be Alone

I love Franzen's writing style and his dry sense of humor. The problem I had with this book is that because most of the essays were written in the mid to late 90s and all were written before 9/11, much of his observations have been rendered, in my opinion, obsolete. The world became a different place after 9/11, the start of the war, etc. - therefore his observations on the zeitgeist, obviously, don't reflect that change. He does however cover a wide range of topics: prisons, literature, Alzheimer's Disease and others.

Because I enjoyed his writing style though, I will read "The Corrections". I recommend this book for the writing and breadth of topics, but offer a caveat about the "timeliness" issue.