How to be Alone - Jonathan Franzen

I enjoy short stories and articles, but I tend not to read them. Most short stories and articles are in a collection and I have a tendency to read straight through from beginning to end. But, I find that with short stories and articles I need to stop and think about each individual story - spend that few minutes at the end of a story to think about what it had to say or avoided saying. I usually take that time at the end of a novel, but I don't when it comes to short stories. It's like I treat the entire collection as a novel, rather than each individual story as it was originally intended. Knowing this about myself, I tend to pick up and then discard collected works several times before finishing. That is how it is with How to be Alone. I started reading it a few months ago while in a Dr waiting room. I made it through the first 2 stories - one of which stuck with me a little. It was about his experience with his father's decline due to Alzheimer's disease. This was the first time I had read a well written account of living with this disease, I could really feel the experience from both the perspective of the author and his father. The feeling of slow decline, of slow decay, and of watching others see you suffer. But in some ways, it makes me feel I could handle being afflicted with this disease - not that I welcome it.

When I picked it up this time, I read 3 more articles. The first was an article originally written for Harper's about the decline of serious literature. I was offended by many of the items in this article. The belief that only reading that is "hard" can be serious literature. I believe that any literature that makes you think - whether the reading is easy or difficult - should be considered serious. Literature does not need to be about the current world - in fact I often think that "hard" literature was not well written. I'm sorry, but if I can't make it through the book, then it doesn't matter if your point was well informed or insightful. I think serious literature is any book that stays with you, one that you think of in your daily life or one that changes the way you see situations. So many people treat mystery, science fiction, and fantasy as "easy" literature. However, a genre does not provide anything other than plot classification. A mystery novel could be making political statements or provide insight into a class of society. Science fiction and fantasy often provide views of how the world could be with different society stratification, different political systems, or altered religious beliefs. These books make me think about the society they propose and the implications of it. But of course, they would not be considered serious.

The other article that I found interesting was the one about the US Postal Service in Chicago. Having always lived in the suburbs, I have never really had troubling experiences with getting my mail. Ok, a few problems when I lived in Alexandria, VA, but all in all, not bad. With the changes in delivery methods (e-mail, fax, FedEx), I don't know how the post office can provide such bad service in cities and let it continue even in the face of congressional hearings. I found this article disturbing - a detailed look at everything government service can do badly. The things that if it was a private business would result in lawsuits and going out of business. But I think the post office is one of those services that need to be offered. I worry about privatizing this service - hopefully USPS will get itself together.