Delightful, quick-to-read book about the real & serious issue of loneliness. ( )

Lovely art, without panels. Most of the rest feels like a newspaper columnist from the 80s who is read newspaper articles about the topics, and is yelling in a popular culture is “get off my mind.” ( )

This book is really interesting. The way the author/illustrator put it together is unique. It’s a beautiful book and the illustrator and book designer use color in a way I found fascinating and absorbing, in both the illustrations and images and on blank pages too. Not too many colors or hues are used but on each page and in each section they’re used in a stunning manner. I found the illustration style odd but pleasant. The print on several of the pages was so tiny I had to assume readers were not meant to really read it. I tried to read it though.

The author gives autobiographical information, biographical information about others, information about and results & quotes from various studies about loneliness and related topics, lists books and other sources, all within the book proper. Many of the images combine illustration/images and pertinent text on many of the pages.

For me there was a melancholy feel to the narrative, apropos for the subject of loneliness.

I enjoyed reading snippets of information I don’t remember ever knowing about the lives of some of the psychology researchers whose work I studied when I was in college. I wish I’d known even more back then about how mentally unhealthy some of them were. I supposed I should have realized that in most cases, even without knowing details about their personal lives.

One finding I hadn’t considered and found interesting is how loneliness is contagious. I’ve known that anxiety could be contagious but I never thought of loneliness as contagious and that it was through more than just the people actually relating with one another, that people never near the lonely person can be affected by someone who has been. A lot of the accounts in this book are a criticism of modern American society. I found that particularly true in the section on old age and loneliness but it was true of the entire book, even though it was made clear that individuals can and do experience feelings of loneliness even when they’re not alone, are married, and are engaged with the world.

In a way this book has depth and it has substance, but in terms of volume of substance there isn’t that much. Without the graphic content this could be a couple of short essays or maybe an article/paper. The six pages of notes at the end were interesting.

This is not a book to read as an audio book! The images cannot be separated from the text and the text on its own would not have the same power. I don’t think there should be an audio edition of this book.

I’m glad that I read this book and I have another book by this author/illustrator on my to read list that I also want to read. ( )

graphic nonfiction - the science of isolation and loneliness, and the implications of such (biology, psychology, social science)

Very interesting and very timely (pandemic and political extremism of 2020-22) ( )