Loneliness

The novel explores the entrapping effects of loneliness via both Marnie Walsh’s and Michael Bradshaw’s intersecting storylines. At the novel’s start, Marnie realizes that her isolated life is “not seclusion or solitude or aloneness,” but “the real thing”: a deep loneliness that can “be a trap” (5). Ever since she and her ex Neil split up, Marnie has spent all of her time alone at her London apartment, working as a copy-editor and proofreader and avoiding social interactions. Because she is unsure how to escape this alienating situation, she wonders if “this is who I am now, someone better off by themselves. Not happier, but better off. Not an introvert, just an extrovert who [has] lost the knack” (6). Via Marnie’s storyline, the novel considers how self-isolating habits might shrink the individual’s world and distort how she sees herself. Indeed, Marnie is reluctant...