Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Fenton Johnson's lyrical prose and searching sensibility encourage readers to discover purpose and fulfillment in time spent alone. He delves into the lives and works of iconic solitaries from Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond and Emily Dickinson in Amherst to the fiercely self-protective Zora Neale Hurston. Each portrait illuminates the bright wakes these solitaries have left and Johnson's own journey from his childhood in rural Kentucky to his travels throughout the world in a celebration of solitude.
Synopsis
Fenton Johnson's lyrical prose and searching sensibility explore what it means to choose solitude and to celebrate the notion that solitude is a legitimate and dignified calling. He delves into the lives and works of nearly a dozen iconic solitaries he considers his kindred spirits, from Thoreau at Walden Pond and Emily Dickenson in Amherst, to the fiercely self-protective Zora Neale Hurston. The bright wakes these figures have left behind illuminate Fenton Johnson's journey from his childhood in rural Kentucky to his solitary travels in America, France, and India. Woven into his musings about better-known solitaries are stories of friends and family he has lost and found along the way."