How to Be Alone
by Jonathan Franzen
Children who stay home sick and writers who stay home working know this emptiness. It brings a sense of estrangement from the world, and for me that sense has always been sharpened and confirmed by the sound of a mailman's footsteps approaching and receding. To be a mailman is to inhabit this emptiness for hours, to disturb five hundred abandoned lawns, one after another. I ask Johnson to tell me the most interesting thing that has happened to him in his nine years of carrying mail. After a moment's thought, he says that nothing interesting has ever happened to him.🏁
Submitted by jyin - 10/23/2025
Book Non-Fiction 5.55 Ranked
Global Leaderboard
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How to Be Alone
by Jonathan Franzen
Children who stay home sick and writers who stay home working know this emptiness. It brings a sense of estrangement from the world, and for me that sense has always been sharpened and confirmed by the sound of a mailman's footsteps approaching and receding. To be a mailman is to inhabit this emptiness for hours, to disturb five hundred abandoned lawns, one after another. I ask Johnson to tell me the most interesting thing that has happened to him in his nine years of carrying mail. After a moment's thought, he says that nothing interesting has ever happened to him.🏁
Submitted by jyin - 10/23/2025
Book Non-Fiction 5.55 Ranked