I’m bringing something a bit different today. This Exquisite Loneliness by Richard Deming Book Tour is hosted by Author Marketing Experts.

About the Book

At an unprecedented rate, loneliness is moving around the globe—from self-isolating technology and political division to community decay and social fragmentation—and yet it is not a feeling to which we readily admit. It is stigmatized, freighted with shame and fear, and easy to dismiss as mere emotional neediness. But what if instead of shying away from loneliness, we embraced it as something we can learn from and as something that will draw us closer to one another?

In This Exquisite Loneliness, Richard Deming turns an eye toward that unwelcome feeling, both in his own experiences and the lives of six groundbreaking figures, to find the context of loneliness and to see what some people have done to navigate this profound sense of discomfort. Within the back stories to Melanie Klein’s contributions to psychoanalysis, Zora Neale Hurston’s literary and ethnographic writing, the philosophical essays of Walter Benjamin, Walker Evans’s photography of urban alienation, Egon Schiele’s revolutionary artwork and Rod Serling’s uncanny narratives in The Twilight Zone, Deming explores how loneliness has served as fuel for an intense creative desire that has forged some of the most original and innovative art and writing of the twentieth century.

This singular meditation on loneliness reveals how we might transform the pain of emotional isolation and become more connected to others and more at home with our often unquiet selves.

Praise For This Exquisite Loneliness

“Loneliness is everywhere these days. But this book will chase some of it away, and maybe replace it with connection.” — Patton Oswalt, Emmy and Grammy-winning comic

“This Exquisite Loneliness is a beautifully written, informative, intimate, and insightful meditation about working with loneliness, a central and intrinsic feature of human existence, and not through it.”  — Psychology Today

“…Rich and sensitive…[Deming’s] ability to limn loneliness and isolation, and trace the ways in which his six subjects explored them, is one that Mr. Deming comes by honestly.” —The Wall Street Journal

I listened to the audiobook – the narrator is also the author – in truth, I cringed when he said that, but he has a very nice and soothing voice. I listened at 1.2x. He does inflict sadness into his tone at appropriate times. I think the audiobook was the right choice for me, it was slow going (but interesting) in the beginning. The introduction was 38 minutes. The Chapters were even more interesting and enjoyable, definitely thoughts to ponder. The writing is fantastic and it’s compelling to consider how creativity can blossom in unexpected places. 

About the Author

Richard Deming’s first collection of poems, Let’s Not Call it Consequence (Shearsman Books, 2008), won the Norma Farber Award from the Poetry Society of America and was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award. He is also the author of Listening on All Sides: Towards an Emersonian Ethics of Reading. In 2012, he was awarded the Berlin Prize by the American Academy in Berlin. He is currently the Director of Creative Writing at Yale University.

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This Exquisite Loneliness Book Tour

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