Weekly Reader: The Opposite of Loneliness

By Jovanna Brinck

Courier Staff Reporter

The Opposite of Loneliness is a collection of essays and stories written by a Yale student in her early 20s, named Marina Keegan.

The tragic story of Marina’s death and loss of potential success is enough to pull any reader in. At the young age of 23, Marina died just five days after her graduation from Yale University. She had a job waiting for her at the New Yorker and was just getting started on her career of being a writer. The title of her book, published by her friends and family after she died, is a reference to her latest published work for the Yale Daily News in which she talked about her time as a Yale student.

The Opposite of Loneliness features an introduction by Anne Fadiman, one of her professors at Yale, nine fiction works, and nine nonfiction works.

Her work in the book appropriately starts with “The Opposite of Loneliness,” a positive essay regarding her experience at Yale and how much she enjoyed going through the same things other Yale students were.

Her fiction mainly focuses on the many adventures with love. Most of her protagonists are young adult women like herself, but some feature older women and young men. Her fiction is very serious, and deals with heartbreaking issues, like death, war, and making tough, life-changing decisions.

Much like her later fiction, her nonfiction focuses on issues with humanity rather than just love. Some of her essays are calls-to-action while others are simply observing humanity. All of her nonfiction is interesting and thought-provoking.

Also, in the introductions to both her fiction and nonfiction work, her book includes excerpts from poetry she’s written.

Keegan’s writing is incredibly beautiful. Her fiction pulls readers right into the story; her nonfiction forces readers to look at life with a different perspective. Most of her essays are relatively short, and her longest works are no more than ten pages. The book can easily be read all at once, or one or two works at one reading session.

Some of my favorite works of hers includes “Hail, Full of Grace” and “Why We Care About Whales.” “Hail, Full of Grace,” a fiction work,  focuses on a single 42-year-old woman who is home for the holidays. She has recently adopted a baby, after giving up her own baby when she was twenty-two. Her relationship with the baby’s father went downhill after the adoption and they soon broke up; she hasn’t had a working relationship since they broke up, seventeen years ago. When she meets her ex in a grocery store, she has to face confessing to him that she adopted a child even though she gave theirs up many years ago. “Why We Care About Whales” is an attack on people who would much rather help beached whales than help the homeless or people who are going hungry. Keegan argues that most people, herself included, are much more willing to help animals in trouble than fellow humans in trouble. She goes on to explore the reason for this and her insights on it are eye-opening.

In my opinion, Marina Keegan was an excellent writer. Her intelligence and awareness of the world around her shined through her writing. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of works. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in writing. Her work and the story about her life is both inspiring and heartbreaking.