Rating: 
Summary: What was that all about?
Review:
This was my first reading of anything by Franzen.I picked this book up at the same time as I got "Corrections".I decided to read this book first to get a feel for his work,but must admit was very disappointed.
I found that trying to get anything out of these essays was like looking for a white dove in a snowstorm.Obviously,he believes he has what it takes to be a good novelist.Maybe he is well versed in the techniques of writing,but he doesnt seem to know what he wants to say to the reader.His essays seem to be an attempt at observation,but he can't seem to pull his thoughts together and present a conclusion to the reader.
His concern about the literary novel going the way of the vinyl disc or the rotary phone,reminds me that it is the message not the medium that is important.
Maybe he has found his calling as a teacher of literary mechanics and should just leave the writing of novels to the gifted who know what they want to say and have the fire in their belly to pursue that path.
In his last essay ,it appears he drifts somewhere between being liberal or socialist minded;and maybe that is the problem.He is not happy with the way things are,doesn't know what would satisfy him and can't suggest any solution.Maybe he should start searching out some people who are positive,satisfied and successful.
Oh well,I guess I'll still give "Corrections" a try.Let's hope I like it better than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: stick to fiction
Review: I read a good short story by Franzen in The New Yorker a couple years ago, but this book is lame. The essays contain little to no humor or insight- they are just lengthy, boring opinions on various subjects. Imagine if you can a duller, less-relavant Andy Rooney.
Rating: 
Summary: Beating around the bush
Review: "How to Be Alone" proves two things about Jonathan Franzen: he's smart and he's an incredible writer. Everything else in this great collection of essays is open to interpretation.Franzen uses this book to share his thoughts on subjects ranging from the state of contemporary fiction to sex guides to the criminal justice system. Though his opinions are included, he rarely seeks to make a strong point. Indeed, fanatics of structured argument will be put off by Franzen's aloof, circuitous approach. Franzen chooses instead to show us how he thinks. Rich with off-hand anecdotes and the winning prose that garnered Franzen the National Book Award for his novel The Corrections, these essays are all very personal. The author doesn't seek to convince the reader to take up his often liberal viewpoints; he merely wants to share his thoughts. Take it or leave it. In the end, the title "How to Be Alone" has more to do with how to be an distinct individual than how to isolate one's self from the world. He could have called it How to Be Yourself. While the prose is continually entertaining, the essays seem to go down slightly in quality as one moves through the book. After opening with the touching story of his dealing with his father's battle with Alzheimer's Disease, then a unique look at the right to privacy in America, and the so-called "Harper's Essay" about the death of the American novel, some of the remaining essays get a little frivilous. A perfect example is the essay "Mr. Difficult," which starts out addressing the novelist's obligation the reader, but quickly turns into a summary of the irony underlying the carrer of obscure (in several senses) author William Gaddis. But even when Franzen leads the reader on a long and winding road with no real destination, it is fun to be in the car, just to see how he drives.
Rating:
Summary: A Celebration of Reading, Writing, and LIfe
Review: A reviewer of one of Jonathan Franzen's earlier novels wrote that Franzen, through his work, reminds us of the importance of serious fiction. I could not agree more. Franzen writes fiction with meaning, with a purpose disturbingly rare among modern day writers. His work culminated with last years critically acclaimed work, "The Corrections." That book told us that he was without a doubt one of the countries best novelists. This compilation of Franzen's essays tells us that he can be an extremely insightful and honest cultural critic. Not every essay in this collective work is golden, but most are. They vary wildly in their concentrations, from Franzen's disturbingly honest recount of his father's battle with Alzheimer's disease to his life as a young writer in New York. Views on popular culture, tobacco companies, the post office, politics, the rise of cities and the sad death of intellectual life are all presented in Franzen's enjoyable and easily understood style. The title of the collection stems from the idea that readers and lovers of the written word should celebrate their uniqueness. Far too many people in Imperial America are unhappy and lonely, a sad situation. The reader is forced to cringe when presented with Franzen's collection of apocalyptic facts concerning the battle between books and the mass media (books are nearing their last stand, at least in this era). Franzen has some good tips for the lonely reader, such as throwing out the TV, which, as Franzen convincingly argues, is the root of nearly all evils in our world (too little humor to be comfortable). Other essays examine Franzen's disgust and love of consumerism and the ignorance it spawns. One slightly whimsical but sad entry concerns the everyday drudgery of a federal penitentiary. Also revealed is Franzen's famous dispute with Oprah, a cultural force so strong the casual Franzen stood no chance. A joy to read and a book to learn from.
Rating: 
Summary: Uneven
Review: After reading 'The Corrections' I was expecting to be enlightened by 'How to be alone'. Or at least delighted by it.
I did feel enlightened and delighted, only not as often as I hoped. Reading his essays it was impossible not to picture Franzen as a self-righteous, pedant and ultimately insecure character. This setback could easily be overlooked, but Franzen insisted in a conversational tone that really brought him to life in every essay. Unfortunately, his presence was one I would have chosen not to share.
This said, there is a fair amount of insight to be found throughout the book, even when surrounded by some equally fair amount of bs and self serving arguments.
To his merit, I must admit that even when he sounded wrong he made me think about what he was saying. All in all a good bathroom read!
Rating: 
Summary: Get over the Oprah debacle & try this!
Review: As an Oprah fan I steered clear of this book for no good reason. I haven't read 'The Corrections' but I really enjoyed 'How to Be Alone' in the audio cassette format. The author read a few of his selections, two at the beginning & the very last essay on the sixth and last cassette. After listening to this book, I feel like I have a more complete understanding of Franzen and his view of the world. I respect his negative opinion of many of the fixtures of pop culture, like the TV, but I don't find him to be as offensive as some of the other reviewers do. I find that a lot of his opinions tend to be well reasoned and many of them are thoughts that I have had myself but that I never verbalized. Occasionally, his wit & humor come through & I laughed out loud. The audio book kept my attention & was thought provoking. I particularily enjoy hearing the author's voice. I find it lends a certain personal aspect to the essays. As with some non-fiction works, the audio book format is the most compeling, in my personal opinion. If you can't afford it, you can check it out at the library.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasure of Reading - Franzen is a master!
Review: Beautiful reading. I have to admit when I picked it up for reading, I was thinking of the book probably being another attempt to provoke consumerism due to the sales volumes of The Corrections. I was wrong! Franzen demonstrates the art of writing with his essays. There are so many sentences and paragraghs that I have read them again and again - just for the pleasure of reading it. You may not agree with all his arguments and appreciate his feelings. But how he puts them forward is the work of a master!
Rating:
Summary: Smart
Review: Franzen displays much of what makes his novels at the same time fun and annoying to read. He's smart---and he knows it---and is happy to show it off. If you're interested in dead-on essays about the art of fiction, from a self-conscious, self-referential and somewhat self-destructive writer--this is your book. His narrative journalism, most of it first published in the New Yorker, is somewhat less compelling but still very well done. The personal essays on his father's brain and what it feels like to be fodder for Oprah are alone worth the price of the book.
Rating:
Summary: The post office essay stands out.
Review: Franzen hits and misses, both in style and subject matter, but I appreciated his tale of a Chicago post office manager who simply tired of poor carriers and jaded executives above and below her. It was funny and insurgent. What it had to do with privacy, or if it wasn't even meant to, is questionable. The theme of the book is tenuous at best, and seems to have been created as a vehicle to rerun Franzen's "Perchance to Dream" essay that ran in Harper's a few years back, and stirred the literary types of this country. That essay is wordy and, Franzen suggests, not even entirely relevant anymore, but it is angry, and more or less correct.
Rating:
Summary: The artless poser is at it again
Review: franzen is just so deep. it looks like he's having a lot of fun playing the tortured artist, especially with that self-indulgent photograph on the cover, geez, talk about laying it on pretty thick. after reading the corrections i kept my expectations pretty low. so i wasnt' surprised when i picked up this new book of essays on how to be alone, which should have been retitled "how to be a pretentious artless snob, who likes to copulate with his own cleverness." but that probably wouldn't fit on the cover. so franzen is obviously depressed and dismayed by consumer culture, oh boo hoo, so is every other young person in america. his amateur psychology is akin to those literary discussions you might come across in some east village bar on a friday night. franzen, for the most part, has the mind of an academic. you get the feeling that he could've been a good professor at some elite university where self-indulgence and pretentious babble is appreciated and adored. but as a creative writer, his stuff doesnt' work. anyone with a college degree can deconstruct society as franzen does. you don't see any other writers doing this kind of stuff, because frankly, these "woe is me! society is a big mess!" kinds of pieces are a waste of time. they're the last refuge for writers who can't write fiction, but who still want to be famous some how. in conclusion, don't read this, unless you're in a prison with a twenty year sentence and have nothing better to do.
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