Here I have provided information about a select few of my favorite stories from the both the Fiction and Nonficition sections of Marina's book, The Opposite of Loneliness.
Fiction
Cold Pastoral
The Opposite of Loneliness, pg 9.
I find it a little ironic that the first essay in Marina's book is themed around dealing with the loss of a young person, especially when I'm sure that so many people who initially read this book were trying to comprehend their own grief over her death.
This piece is written from an interesting perspective. A college student is forced to reevaluate her relationship with her recently deceased boyfriend, after she reads his journals. She soon realizes that their relationship was not nearly as serious as she thought (or thought that he had thought?), though there's no way for her to say that to his grieving family and friends. So instead she continues the charade and does what she has to do to get through his funeral.
The piece alludes to John Keat's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" pretty early on, on page ten. The line from the poem, Cold Pastoral!, insinuates that the two are frozen in an eternal stasis. A pastoral imagery involves nature and simple country life, what one would expect to be a green paradise. But the coldness of the urn is a metaphor for how distant and uncaring the relationship actually is.
I feel like this essay does an excellent job of reminding...
Winter Break
The Opposite of Loneliness, pg. 33
I remember coming home from college for the first extended amount of time this past year. I remember being really excited to see my family, my friends, but then feeling such an emptiness when I got there. Marina captures these emotions perfectly in her fictional essay, "Winter Break". I can relate to the small town experience she describes personally.
Growing up in a small town is a strangely familial experience. People coexist intimately, unlike a pulsating city- which can feel so lonely, despite the fact that it is overflowing with people. There are no professors with rich accents and scribbling pens in Red Oak. No one debates the corporate tax rate, or asks if you’re registered to vote in Nash County, because God knows you’ve been there long enough to know. We are hidden from the rest of the bustling world in our little two-stoplight safe haven. Time moves slower, on a different scale even. There are familiar faces in every niche- that one Baptist church, the post office, even the grocery store. The routine and tradition of a small town like Red Oak is like quicksand. For those of us lucky to get out, we learn to appreciate our childhood, but we know we can never come back to stay.
Everything is habitual in a small town. Consistent...
Hail, Full of Grace
The Opposite of Loneliness, pg. 107
Marina's piece "Hail, Full of Grace", centers itself on the experience of adoption, and the emotions that it entails. In the story, a middle aged woman returns to her hometown with her newly adopted daughter, where she must face old lovers and an emotionally complex past.
It explores the emotions of jealously, loneliness and mourning, and in my not so professional opinion, it is one of the most dynamic stories in the book.
Audrey, the main character, put her child up for adoption when she was young, with the love of her life whom she never got over. Ironically enough, she ends up adopting a baby of her own years later, hoping to fill some void left after the loss.
It's interesting to watch Audrey experience these different emotions, without fully understanding the details of what has happened to her.
As she returns to her hometown, she finds herself lost in the inevitable change, when she feels that she's remained the same.
I think Keegan portrays these emotions beautifully, and they're ones that we can all relate to in some way.
Nonfiction
The Opposite of Loneliness
The Opposite of Loneliness, pg 1.
For college seniors staring right into the face of graduation, it's often impossible to find the right words to express "all of the feels" they have before graduating: a bittersweet mix of happiness, fear and uncertainty about what happens after a graduation cap is tossed in the air and "the real world" becomes ya know.. real?
The Opposite of Loneliness, the tribute piece to the book's title, was the last article that Marina published in Yale's daily newspaper, just before graduation.
I can't imagine yet what it will be like to graduate from college, but I feel like this piece gives me a pretty significant insight. It's the perfect tribute to the memories I've made in just this past year at Carolina. I think that's why this is my favorite piece in the book.
Marina speaks so calmly, so assuredly about her future and the way in which she wants to see the world change. She had big plans, but she also saw the value in the smaller things. She wasn't afraid to admit her fears, but she
In her essay, she says, "We're so young. We're so young. We're twenty-two years old. We have so much time."
But the thing is, we don't have time. Marina knew that, and she lived in a way that reflected that. She used her time and...
Why We Care About Whales
The Opposite of Loneliness, pg 151
In one of her more philanthropical pieces, Marina Keegan tells a short anecdote about saving whales. "Why We Care About Whales" highlights the human potential for compassion and condemns us for our selective use of it.
An interesting activist stance though, she chastises people for choosing to spend their time saving animals and wildlife (which, yes she regards as important), and instead of people.
She says, "I worry sometimes that humans are afraid of helping humans. There's less risk associated with animals, less fear of failure, less fear of getting too involved." This claim to me is so interesting.
We see commercials all the time...
Even Artichokes Have Doubts
The Opposite of Loneliness, pg. 187
In “Even Artichokes Have Doubts,” Keegan investigates a problem that really irks her: why are 25% of Yale graduates taking jobs in finance and consulting?
Interviewing her fellow graduating seniors, she identifies the root of what truly worries her: “What bothers me is this idea of validating, of rationalization. The notion that some of us (regardless of what we tell ourselves) are doing this because we’re not sure what else to do and it’s easy to apply to and it will pay us decently and it will make us feel like we’re still successful.”
I don't think that Keegan is arguing that everyone should become an artist or a writer or an actress, but I think she makes an incredibly interesting point.
Why is the business school such a sought after option here? Why do we all want to be stockbrokers and accountants and just simply spend our days at a desk simply because we'll make a lot of money doing it. It cultivates a community with no passion for anything.
Even if you don't buy this book, I'd still recommend this read. The statistics, which I'd love to...
