The Opposite of Loneliness
Marina Keegan
[Simon & Schuster]
Even without the context of its publication, The Opposite of Loneliness is a book bathed in the pressure of life’s limits. Marina Keegan repeatedly weights buoyant youthful reflections (‘The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious.’), with keenly perceptive, mature writing that demands consideration ‘because there’s an urgency’, because ‘when the world ends’ is a pressing concern. Five days after graduating from Yale, Keegan died in a car accident; this book mostly comprises stories and essays written for college courses or newspapers. Charged with the pathos of an unfinished life and the unknowing finality of its documents, it is difficult not to approach the collection tentatively, as an invasive scrapbook of recollection and experiment; too desperately sad to properly critique.
Still, here goes. The fiction can seem premature, driven by a hurried imagination that outstrips the intricacies of craft. Audacious think-pieces The Emerald City and Challenger Deep are overly reliant on conceptual exposition. Better stories – The Ingenue, Cold Pastoral – combine Keegan’s sheer imaginative reach with finely wrought language. The aging dancer of Reading Aloud, too, is perfectly expressed with words unpretentious yet devastating. Yet the essays are this collection’s real strength, pooling linguistic ease with a sharp conscience across social issues – corporate demands, animal rights, ‘stranded humans’ – alongside intimate family dynamics and intricate profile pieces. ‘There can always be a better thing’ was apparently Keegan’s writing motto. Maybe so; but we are lucky to have the thing there is.
Words: Gill Moore
