The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

The instant New York Times bestseller and publishing phenomenon: Marina Keegan’s posthumous collection of award-winning essays and stories “sparkles with talent, humanity, and youth” (O, The Oprah Magazine). Marina Keegan’s star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at The New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash. Marina left behind a rich, deeply expansive trove of writing that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation. Her short story “Cold Pastoral” was published on NewYorker.com. Her essay “Even Artichokes Have Doubts” was excerpted in the Financial Times, and her book was the focus of a Nicholas Kristof column in The New York Times. Millions of her contemporaries have responded to her work on social media. As Marina wrote: “We can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over…We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.” The Opposite of Loneliness is an unforgettable collection of Marina’s essays and stories that articulates the universal struggle all of us face as we figure out what we aspire to be and how we can harness our talents to impact the world. “How do you mourn the loss of a fiery talent that was barely a tendril before it was snuffed out? Answer: Read this book. A clear-eyed observer of human nature, Keegan could take a clever idea...and make it something beautiful” (People).

These aren't bad – it's just that it's not new to me; nothing surprised me or felt like it held insight, so it feels boring, which is a sin. A lot of it also felt predictable and I was uninterested in the characters which frequently felt like they were all the same character, even Marina Keegan herself.

I think it's also that my lens is warped and also that this is not Keegan's best representation. It's very much: here's a young woman who was going to shine so bright, but she didn't get a chance so we cobbled together everything she wrote that we could assemble. I graduated from college the same year as Keegan so it was very hard not to make comparisons.

I hate the whole, ‘well the sun is going to explode so everything is pointless'. We've got about five billion years before the sun become unstable, don't use that for an excuse if what you really want to say you think things are pointless or that humanity sucks, there are much more imminent and pressing things.

I was really disappointed in the essay – I dunno it read like a student paper article– about Yalies becoming consultants. Googled it, it's called “Even Artichokes Have Doubts”. It lacked heart, it didn't seem like she knew enough about her subject. I recently watched John Oliver's episode on McKinsey and oof, it's bad.

I refuse to give this less than two stars. I don't think it's fair that she wasn't able to give this the polish it deserved. I think that this collection really suffered a tone problem and the way it was organized. If Keegan herself were to have put published a collection herself, she would have done a better job of sorting, ordering, and introducing the fiction and non-fiction. I also went into this expecting a lot more non-fiction and I had a hard time caring about her fictional characters that seemed to have insecurity as their main character trait.

She had potential

While the writing was fantastic for a 22-year-old, and certainly better than my college creative writing, I felt the essays and stories couldn't escape that college perspective. I think I would have enjoyed and related to this much more had I read it senior year of college vs. 2 years after. Still some powerful moments and lovely sentiments, but would probably only recommend to college students. Still, it's wonderful her parents were able to publish this collection post-humous for her memory and talent to live on.

“We are so young. We are so young.”

I've had this on my TBR list for years, years. Of course, as it went viral, I hyped it up in my mind. And then I deflated all that hype before I read it because I've grown more cynical in the past years. I assumed it was just a bestseller because the author died. I don't mean to be cold, really. Her death was a true tragedy, so horrifying, and I cried years ago when I read about. I also cried when I read the beautiful introduction and again when I read The Opposite of Loneliness, the essay. And to that point, I was wrong. I was wrong to judge preemptively.

Marina would have been a great writer of our time. That doesn't mean she would have gotten published or had success, but she was an incredible writer. In the fiction section, I was drawn into every single story. I didn't want to put it down until I found out what happened. Her characters were real people that I could see. And that's a feat with short stories, it's difficult to write a character that real, with a backstory, in a few pages while also telling the story. But she did it.

And in the nonfiction section, Marina somehow managed to make Yale sound interesting enough to hold my attention. Not sorry, Universities are not the place for me. Her musings about life are young and unfinished, but insightful. I wish she had more time, she deserves more time. Of course she does.

Would I recommend this?

Yes, if you enjoy short stories, essays, and realism.

Some of the most memorable essays from this book include the one about the whale, the piece on consultants, and the very last one in the book. Some of theses I wish I had read years ago—especially as a student. There's a great comfort in having someone else use words to describe what you're feeling. The fictional stories are beautiful, emotional, and messy with many memorable moments and lines.