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A review by jessdekkerreads
The Lonely Stories: 22 Celebrated Writers on the Joys & Struggles of Being Alone by Natalie Eve Garrett
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
5.0
A collection of essays chosen with intention by Garrett, to make you feel seen in your anguish of aloneness, or quite the opposite, in your craving for solitude. βππ©π’π΅ πͺπ§ πΈπ¦ π«π°πͺπ―π¦π₯ π°πΆπ³ ππ°π―π¦ππͺπ―π¦π΄π΄? ππ©π’π΅ πͺπ§ π΅π©π’π΅ πͺπ΄ π«π°πΊ?β
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Iβve sought out the quiet since childhood, at times desperately so, a young child of divorce, feeling as though Iβll lose parts of myself bit by bit if I donβt seek it, an increasing spell of anxiety softly touching my shoulder. I find solitude and healing in being alone. At times such emphatic conversing can be too much to bear, flight becomes the initial response, and if not an option, then reclusiveness. I begin to feel isolated in my detachment, yet accompanied by reticent healing. This tranquility withers around until it entangles me, wraps me up in comfort.
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Perhaps this is why I feel most at peace in the early morning hours, or late night obscurity, because it reveals itself to me, undomesticated and accepting. Thereβs no expectation from me, no obligation or restraint, like an alcove I can crawl into, immediate breath filling up my lungs.
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With each essay I felt less alone in my desire for aloneness, my heart feels complete here in this silence, my mind reassured.
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Included in this essay collection are stories of a woman who describes the brief moments where she was alone throughout the day; a mother, a writer, escaping to a retreat, a break from domesticity, struggling with her thoughts and freedom, and turning to alcohol in the process; a woman, a mother admitted to the hospital with a life-threatening thyroid storm, and what loneliness inside a hospital and inside her body can feel like; a son living in fear of losing his mother; a woman who experiences a miscarriage and what that aloneness within the grieving process can bring; and perhaps the essay that made me the most emotional, when Jesmyn Ward shares her story of losing her partner during the pandemic.
A huge thank you to Catapult for sending me an advanced copy. Itβs out on shelves now, run donβt walk to your nearest bookstore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Racism, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Suicide