In this collection of essays, Vivian Gornick describes battling the unique loneliness that only living alone in a big city can bring. Drawing upon her experience of living on her own in New York after a failed marriage, Gornick characterizes the city"s loneliness as, "hot with shame, a loneliness that tells you you"re a fool and a loser. Everyone else is feasting, you alone cannot gain a seat at the table." In the essay, "On Living Alone," she writes, "This is a population in a permanent state of intermittent attachment. Inevitably, the silent apartment waits." Recommended reading for anyone who still glamorizes single, metropolitan living.