With many the world over stuck at home, the pandemic exposed a quieter epidemic that had already been ripping through America—the epidemic of loneliness. In emotionally charged drawings and deeply empathetic prose, Kristen Radtke’s newest book Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness navigates the different ways our inner lives interact with our public selves and the ways in which we attempt to feel closer to one another.
She explored this topic further and discussed the release of her book with Leslie Jamison, author of Make It Scream, Make It Burn and The Empathy Exams.
Featured Book
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Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness
By Kristen Radtke
Published by Pantheon
There is a silent epidemic in America: loneliness. Shameful to talk about and often misunderstood, loneliness is everywhere, from the most major of metropolises to the smallest of towns.
In Seek You, Kristen Radtke’s wide-ranging exploration of our inner lives and public selves, Radtke digs into the ways in which we attempt to feel closer to one another, and the distance that remains. Through the lenses of gender and violence, technology and art, Radtke ushers us through a history of loneliness and longing, and shares what feels impossible to share.
Ranging from the invention of the laugh-track to the rise of Instagram, the bootstrap-pulling cowboy to the brutal experiments of Harry Harlow, Radtke investigates why we engage with each other, and what we risk when we turn away. With her distinctive, emotionally-charged drawings and deeply empathetic prose, Kristen Radtke masterfully shines a light on some of our most vulnerable and sublime moments, and asks how we might keep the spaces between us from splitting entirely.
