Loneliness, that not-so-aberrant state that many people continue to avoid by clinging to something, which sometimes requires sacrifices in order to become someone freer but also miserable. Gabo knew it, also Murakami or Hesse, authors who converted these 7 books for lonely souls in unofficial manuals to understand a state of the soul as natural as it is undervalued.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez
Many of us appreciate that the initial title of the house was replaced by the name with which everyone today knows which is one of the great Hispanic novels of our time. Because loneliness, despite how many children with similar names you have and the ghost of your husband wandering in the rain, was always there for Ursula Iguarán, the most discreet heroine of that magical and existential literature that Gabriel García Márquez embodied in his 1967 work.
The Steppe Wolf, by Herman Hesse
As a product of the spiritual crisis that the German author Herman Hesse lived through in the 20s, The Steppe Wolf came to become the meat of misinterpretation and, at the same time, a new Bible for any transcendental reader who appreciated the portrait of a man. , Harry haller, torn between a dehumanized system and a precarious life. For posterity there are a trace of gold and phrases like «the solitude was cold, it is true, but it was also calm, wonderfully calm and great, like the calm cold space in which the stars move«.
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
From the wild men of the 20s who roam the lonely streets, we pass to women who, despite having a job, a house and a good salary, continue to be victims of the eternal cliché that considers singles in their thirties as playboys and mature women as. . . spinsters. The one that remains one of the feminist novels most influential of the turn of the century, Fielding's work, arising from different columns written by the author herself for The Independent newspaper, not only served to unite more to the thirty-year-olds of the West, but to show us how hilarious it could be Renée Zellweger in its film adaptation. One of the best books for lonely souls wanting to laugh at yourself. Once and for all.
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
You, me, the neighbor. . . each person has a goal in life, be it more or less ambitious, but. . . What if those purposes are never fulfilled? Do we accept failure? Or are we still looking for the opportunity to show the world what we are worth? More or less this was the problem of Santiago, the leading fisherman in Hemingway's famous work published in 1952. The story of an old man who entered the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to capture a fish so large that it could dazzle those who always saw him as a failure became the perfect excuse to narrate the eternal struggle of man against nature. . . and his own demons.
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
They say that feeling alone surrounded by people is worse than doing it without anyone, which is why the protagonist of the work of the perfectionist Flaubert was always misunderstood. Because, did this wealthy woman, married to a loving doctor and a beautiful daughter, have reason to feel unhappy? Flaubert's work explores this dissatisfaction, that of a world that succumbs to social conditioning and in many cases sacrifices old dreams, something that perhaps has not changed as much as one might expect in the XNUMXst century.
The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger
Controversial at the time for its foul language and the constant references to alcohol or prostitution, the most famous novel by American Salinger is an analysis of adolescent rebellion against the system, norms, family beliefs or education itself through the eyes of the protagonist, Holden caulfield, that young man of 16 who did not dare give himself to a prostitute and who considered the world as "false."
Tokio blues, by Haruki Murakami
It was my introduction to Murakami, and as such I have very fond memories. Because despite seeming to be a simple story, Tokio Blues is also complex, the perfect portrait of a confused youth embodied by the characters of the lonely Toru and Naoko, the ex-girlfriend of his deceased best friend. Throughout the pages of the work also known as Norwegian Wood, in reference to the song by The Beatles, Murakami tells the story of characters immersed in their own universes and their inability to make all of them coincide at some point.
These 7 books for lonely souls They will become perfect allies to those reflections, existential crises and lonely afternoons in which, rather than fearing the most contradictory feeling in the world, it is about accepting it, about leaning on it to know our best version.
What books for lonely souls would you add?
Hello Alberto.
I agree with you: there is a real terror of being or feeling alone and we are not taught from childhood that it is good to have moments of solitude to get to know ourselves better, to connect with our deepest part.
Many people forget that it is also a horror to want to be alone and not be able to. The vast majority of people do not know how to be alone and would be unable to go to the cinema, to a concert, to have a drink without anyone ...
Loneliness, when it is not imposed by circumstances, is a good to claim.
I do not think that these are seven books for lonely souls, but for all lovers of good literature (I would remove from the list «Bridget Jones's diary, although I admit that I have not read it, because it gives me the feeling that it is not to the height of the rest). Of those you mention, I read "One Hundred Years of Solitude," "The Catcher in the Rye," and "Tokyo Blues." I really liked all three and also for me Murakami's book was my first approach to this author.
"Steppenwolf" I started it a couple of times or three, but didn't continue it (not because I didn't like it). It is a dense book. It is noted that Hesse wrote it as a result of an existential crisis. I have to finish it one day.
A hug from Oviedo and good Easter.
Hello Alberto
How long!
Indeed, people are often afraid of loneliness and to accept it, it can be fully enjoyed. Of course, it should not be confused with isolation 😉
Another hug
I think some know what loneliness is, but I wonder if anyone knows what company is. Being next to someone, chatting, doing some activity or the like? interacting with people is supposed to stop being alone, I think that is not the case, the real perceptible company is that of the jaws of time endlessly devouring everything.
When there are instinctual and emotional needs, the company seems to be what is needed, to avoid and deceive itself and forget that everything slowly fades into absolute oblivion. You think you are alone, but really you have always been and you have never realized it, do you feel appreciation, love for your loved ones? but, perhaps, they stopped listening to the noise of time fading away, you will continue to love them despite not being able to barely hear with your deafened ears.
Loneliness only wants you to fight, and in the wisest way, with your heart freed from all illusory absurdities in which you previously thought you were happy, loneliness is a constant struggle without rest, to remain faithful and firm so that what you had emerges than to leave hidden safe from life the creator of the authentic thoughts and who always wanted to give you company, your heart. With him you will never be alone and understanding you will begin to do what he always wanted you to do, fight in the most absolute silence the greatest battle of all that of your success in leaving loneliness.
I think that's why some people and also famous in a certain way shine in their field, they managed to stop being alone, and they dedicated themselves to what they loved, their meaning of life.
It is true that goodness emanates the sensation of being alive, in a world where it should be the opposite and there is no place for it. Whoever conceives the fight against others absurd and unnecessary understands that one must fight, evil also lives in people, although I consider it certainly defective, a tree is not born dry and rotten.
Loneliness is a symptom that is suffered when being alive is perceived with another intensity and how unpredictable it is to be alive. While others believe they are immortal because of the remoteness of the forgotten old age, they live in an assumption of what they believe is the most appropriate exchanging artificial emotions according to the time it is, a value of identifying with the accepted emotion.
Loneliness is the language with which life is written, so unnoticed they wander among those who conform to social dependence and the behavioral concepts that it offers. The victims who love their own chains.
I am a spectator of this scandalous theater and when the curtain closes I return to my favorite place.
loneliness is good when you are the one who is looking for it, terrifying when it is she who is looking for you ……… ..
Loneliness can be a kind friend when you go through an event in which you only need to be with yourself, however, when she arrives uninvited, her presence torments you, in my experience I would like the company of friends with whom I can share a moment happy, a fun time, but when I go through sad events I prefer to simply not have anyone by my side
I cannot be alone. I don't understand how to enjoy solitude or have a good time. I thought I knew but I have been feeling a feeling of extreme loneliness. It torments me, and whenever I think I can overcome it, it pulls me back. That is why I turn to books, my favorite advisers. Is there a book that can help me overcome loneliness or at least understand it?
I recommend the book "La luz de la nostalgia", recently published. The writer is Miguel Angel Linares, a perfect book for lonely souls. Romantic and melancholic stories that will make you reflect on missed opportunities and how capricious destiny is in love. Just read and I loved it. Very well written and an enviable poetic prose.
Good selection. Lei LOBO ESTEPARIO AND M.BOVARY. Sendas both impressed me intensely.
I will read TOKYO BLUES, because I read one of MURAKAMI and I really liked it.
The specific interest is that I want to give my 40-year-old daughter a gift of a good book on well-managed loneliness.
Thanks for your article.
I think I share it.