THE END OF SOLITUDE Selected Essays on Culture and Society

William Deresiewicz, author, essayist, and literary critic, has compiled a variety of essays on solitude and leadership, the pitfalls of an Ivy League education (he previously taught English at Yale), and social media's incursion into daily life, among other timely concerns. Narrator Eric Jason Martin adopts a slow pace that is fitting for the unifying theme of the importance of solitude as an inspiration for reflection, as opposed to the distracting mental noise of constant connection. Martin is clear, informative, and frank as he covers technology culture, higher education, the social imagination, arts and letters, and the Jewish people. While some conclusions are overly sweeping, the writing is, overall, thought-provoking and well elaborated. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2023]