A review by meghan111
Lonely: A Memoir by Emily White

3.0

Kind of a sad, quiet memoir that mixes in a good amount of pop science and analysis. Emily White has struggled with loneliness, and begins seriously researching it after reaching a low point while working as an attorney. While she seems like a nice, outwardly-successful person living in Toronto, she feels horribly alone and isolated. After studying loneliness in an academic and scientific way, she argues that loneliness is distinct from depression and grief, and that it has its own specific effects on the brain and the body. I felt frustrated by the author at times - but perhaps that's part of the way we judge people who are lonely, by finding their lack of ability to change themselves annoying.