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Book Summary and Reviews of Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff

Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff

Loneliness & Company

by Charlee Dyroff

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  • May 2024, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A timely, beautifully observed debut novel set in near future New York about a young woman who finds herself tangled in a secret Government project combating loneliness.

Lee knows she's the best. A professor favorite and fellowship winner, there's no doubt she'll land one of the coveted jobs at a Big Five corporation. So when, upon graduating, Lee is instead assigned to an unknown company in the dead city of New York, her life goals are completely upended.

In this new role, Lee's task is to gather enough research to train an AI how to be a friend. She begins online and by studying the social circle of her clueless, outgoing roommate Veronika. But when the company reveals it's part of a classified government mission to solve loneliness-an emotion erased from society's lexicon decades ago-Lee's determination to prove herself kicks into overdrive, and she begins chasing bolder and more dangerous experiences to provide data for the AI.

How far will Lee go to teach the algorithm? As the mysterious affliction spreads, Lee must decide what she's willing to give up for success and, along the way, learn what it means to be a true friend.

Loneliness & Company is an enchanting, gorgeously written novel about finding meaning and connection in a world beset by isolation.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. Throughout the novel, Lee refers to her parents by their first names, Greg and Cindy, often reflecting on how she wants to be different from them. Does this signify something about their relationship? How would you describe Lee's feelings about her parents?
  2. When she finally learns about the project that the Company who hired her is working on, Lee thinks to herself, "If you don't name something, can you identify it? If you never learn an emotion, can you feel it?" What does this novel suggest are the repercussions of not having the word to describe an emotion like loneliness?
  3. Lee runs and jogs throughout the novel. She goes on a running date, runs to get exercise, to explore her new city, but also as an escape from the...
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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[A]n inventive dystopian novel...The novel's view of the future is particularly distinct in its depictions of dating life...Dyroff also nails the ways in which single-minded ambition can obscure opportunities for connection. This brims with clear insight and unsettling visions of the world to come." —Publishers Weekly

"Dyroff's near future-set book is a bewitching story about technology and isolation. It will grip readers with mesmerizing writing and a tautly-paced plot." —Debutiful

"Charlee Dyroff's Loneliness & Company is a sharply etched and strangely propulsive story about artificial intelligence and authentic feeling: a canny, tender exploration of the stories we tell about our bonds with each other, and the realities we'd rather not face about our bonds with the technologies that shape our days." —Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestselling author of The Empathy Exams and Make it Scream, Make it Burn

"Naturally intelligent. An inventive, timely, and perceptive story about human connection and being alive." —Emily Austin, author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead

This information about Loneliness & Company was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Gloria M

Definitely Share This One With Family and Friends!
People read fiction for many reasons. Some want to be entertained. Others are looking to get some intellectual stimulation. Many simply want to feel something. The best books accomplish all three of these and Charlee Dyroff's first novel, "Loneliness and Company" attains membership in this group.

Lee has been working so hard for so many years to reach her goal of an offer of employment at one of the "Big Five." Instead, the placement system dumps her with an unheard of company working on creating an AI friend to combat loneliness, even though that word (though not the feeling) was expunged from this society.

Lee instantly captures our attention and we take this roller coaster of a journey with her, as she struggles with her past and her present and realizes the narrative she has been telling herself about her life is not exactly accurate. There are many memorable quotes that we all can relate to, but one that resonates the most is "These facts march behind my skull telling me that the reality I'm living in is one I never would have expected."

Dyroff sets the location as New York City, but one that seemingly has lost most of its former glory. The writing style is excellent and engaging, all the characters are well crafted and interesting, and this tale of a young woman searching for her identity and her purpose while learning about friendship and love and what it means to be human (possibly a lifelong quest) will linger in the reader's thoughts for quite some time. Definitely a book to share with friends and family!

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Author Information

Charlee Dyroff

Charlee Dyroff has an MFA from Columbia University, and her work has appeared in Slate, Gulf Coast, Lapham's Quarterly, Guernica, Ploughshares, Eater, and The Best American Food Writing of 2019. She lives in New York.

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