Friday, January 9, 2015

Good Books: The Opposite of Loneliness

I've officially completed book number one of my 25-book pledge! Technically I started reading it in 2014 but you know what, I make the rules for my pledge and I say it counts. 


The book first added to my tally is The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan. After having glanced through this book numerous times at work, I received it for Christmas this year and am so happy to have finally read it. Marina Keegan was a recent graduate from Yale University and very successful in the arts - from poet to playwright, to journalism and fiction. Upon graduation she had a career as a writer working for The New Yorker all lined up, however just five days after convocation, she died in a car crash. This book isn't her biography. Aside from the introduction made by professor Anne Fadiman, the collection of essays and short stories are completely Keegan's. I love this book because not only is it a collection of beautifully written stories, opinions and ideas, but it leaves Marina Keegan exactly how she wanted to be thought of - as a writer. It celebrates her talent as completely her own. This is her book. These are the words she left. 

The title comes from one of her most popular essays, The Opposite of Loneliness, published in the Yale Daily News - it is definitely worth reading. 

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