Synopses & Reviews
A brave and revealing examination of an overlooked affliction that affects one in four Canadians.Despite having a demanding job, good friends, and a supportive family, Emily White spent many of her nights and weekends alone at home, trying to understand why she felt so disconnected from everyone. To keep up the façade of an active social life and hide the painful truth, that she was suffering from severe loneliness, the successful young lawyer often lied to those around her — and to herself.
In this insightful, soul-baring, and illuminating memoir, White chronicles her battle to understand and overcome this debilitating condition, and contends that chronic loneliness deserves the same attention as other mental difficulties, such as depression. "Right now, loneliness is something few people are willing to admit to," she writes. "There's no need for this silence, no need for the shame and self-blame it creates."
By investigating the science of loneliness, challenging its stigma, encouraging other lonely people to talk about their struggles, and defining one person's experience, Lonely redefines how we look at loneliness and helps those afflicted see and understand their mood in an entirely new light, ultimately providing solace and hope. It is a moving, compassionate, and important book about a topic that is affecting more among us each day.
About the Author
EMILY WHITE is a research lawyer and freelance writer. Her work has appeared in Adbusters, Chatelaine, This magazine and Far North. Her fiction was nominated for the Journey Prize in 2005 and appeared in The Fiddlehead. This is her first book.
Table of Contents
UCLA Loneliness Scale
Preamble THE VISIT
Part I ARRIVAL
One PREMONITION Waiting for the state to strike
Two TRUTH Struggling with popular notions of what loneliness should be
Part II IMPACT
Three THE LONG HAUL Recognizing chronicloneliness as a problem in itself
Four HEART AND SOUL How loneliness weaves its way into us
Five PARADOX Loneliness and the mystery of the changing self
Part III CONTEXT
Six HANDLES Thinking about a state that feels so unwieldy
Seven THE COHORT EFFECT How our culture is leaving us lonelier
Eight TABOO Loneliness as the state you’re not supposed to name
Part IV RESOLUTION
Nine PROMISES, PROMISES Public and private ideas about responding to loneliness
Ten THE GOOD-BYE LOOK Listing, luck, and a difficult change
Epilogue LONELY
Acknowledgments
Selected sources and further reading