The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories
Enjoyment
9
Importance
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Date Added
10.30.25
TLDR
Marina Keegan was a gifted Yale graduate, playwright, and essayist who delivered the amazing commencement speech The Opposite of Loneliness, calling her classmates to “make something happen to this world.” Five days later, at just twenty-two, she was killed in a car accident on her way to celebrate her dad’s birthday. “We’re so young. We’re so young,” she had written. “We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time.” The book is a collection of 9 stories, 9 essays, and 1 beautiful intro.
2 Cents
The fiction is some of the best I've ever read. First time I understood fully how reading can put you in another person's shoes. I didn't like the nonfiction generally as much, but there were a couple really good pieces (see below).
Tags
Incredible introduction :
When a young person dies, much of the tragedy lies in her promise: what she would have done. But Marina left what she had already done: an entire body of writing, far more than could fit between these covers.
Favorite fiction:
- Cold Pastoral
- Winter Break
- The Ingenue
- Challenger Deep
- (honorable mention) The Emerald City
Favorite nonfiction:
- Stability in Motion
- Why We Care about Whales
- (honorable mention) Even Artichokes Have Doubts
The rest I didn't enjoy as much.