readers advisory for all discussion

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for any book/graphic novel involving voluntary disappearance. Just to clarify I'm more interested in the psychology of someone choosing to withdraw from society through physical disappearance as opposed to hiding from criminals/troubled past. If that's too exclusive I'm also open to literature about extreme social alienation in a contemporary setting.

I enjoy Douglas Coupland, Franz Kafka, Jonathan Safran Foer, and the way they depict loneliness not in a mental illness way but as a social construct. It would be bonus if the book includes something on how consumer culture and digital reality impacts upon this alienation.

Thanks in advance :)

also, I was sort of inspired by Murakami's Kafka on the Shore (the bit where he runs away from home) and Nickerson's How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (just the title really, considering the book has nothing to do with voluntary disappearance). :)

let me just make sure i understand: you are looking for someone without any mental illness who chooses a life of solitude, like a hermit? like a henry david thoreau situation where someone decides to live a more simple life untainted by modern conveniences, or something more like "i am never leaving my house again because people are horrible"?

Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto is a nonfiction book, but it's about why people become loners and talks about them in pop culture (superman, ect.)

karen wrote: "let me just make sure i understand: you are looking for someone without any mental illness who chooses a life of solitude, like a hermit? like a henry david thoreau situation where someone decides ..."

Yup I can't believe I didn't think of Thoreau! I guess someone more contemporary would be nice though :p

I swear I'm not crazy! I just have a thing with missing people (voluntary, not kidnapped/abducted by alien etc, that would be weird). Also, it doesn't have to be someone who chooses to remain alone forever, the simple act of changing one's identity and vanishing from an established circle would be enough. :) thanks!

You might check out Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population. A big feature of the book is one woman's choice to remain behind when her family/community leaves the planet they live on.

London Is the Best City in America
Is about a girl who calls off her engagement and moves from New York to a small town in rhode island and refuses to move back.

during the book she is with her family, but I mean books about people all alone are hard to find.

Legend Of A Suicide
at least one story is about a father and son who go out to spend the entire winter alone on an island in alaska, maybe more. I think his second book is along a similar vein but about a husband and wife, so it's not complete social rejection, but two people reject the rest of society.

Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking: A Novel actually is like your last thing about changing the circle, It's about someone who moves from maine to new york.

Hi, Mon!

Wayne Johnston's The Custodian of Paradise. It has more impact if you read the loosely-connected prequel, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, in which the main character is introduced as a secondary character -- but the latter requires you to have some familiarity with Canadian history, or at least an interest in it, whereas Custodian of Paradise does not.

It's a theme I'm also fascinated by. Check out my Lonely Hearts Club shelf. Although not all have to do with people deliberately withdrawing from society, all definitely have to do with loneliness.

Based on your reference to Murakami, I might also suggest Observatory Mansions by little-known Carey Edward.

ETA: Carey Edward is indeed little known. Edward Carey, on the other hand, actually wrote the book. LOL.

i love observatory mansions.

karen wrote: "i love observatory mansions."
Wow, you're the first person I think I know who's ever read it! Do you think it fits these RA criteria? I'm not 100% certain - haven't read it in years.

hey mon, i think i get your description, but then you list foer and kafka and you confuse me entirely. i guess in Extremely Loud the grandfather kind of disappears, but kafka? hmmm. luigi pirandello The Late Mattia Pascal is about a man who pretends to be dead. it's a deeply existential novel about being stuck. it's not a celebration of loneliness, but a hard look at how lonely we are (according to the author; i don't agree).

jon krakauer's Into the Wild is truly about disappearing. it's nonfiction but i think it probably reads like fiction.

a graphic novel that depicts an extremely alone girl is mariko tamaki's Skim. the protagonist doesn't go away anywhere, but she is powerfully and heartbreakingly alone.

p.s. you are not weird. even if you liked books about people being kidnapped, you'd not be weird (it's such a vast genre that a lot of people would have to be weird!).

i also wanted to mention susan choi's American Woman. it's a beautiful literary rendition of the patty hearst abduction. as you might know, patty came to embrace the cause of her abductors (a left-wing revolutionary group) and decided to stay on the lam. it's very powerful and it does depict a certain kind of deep alonness, though susan choi is not a tug-the-strings-of-your-hearts kind of writer and she analyses rather than shoves the alonness down your throat. it's narrated in the voice of one of the members of the radical group, a very alone (for real!) japanese-american girl.

in fact, another book by susan choi, A Person of Interest, pursues some of the same themes that interest you; it's about a very lone asian-american professor whose life becomes entangled with a person from his past who changed his identity. susan choi is pretty fabulous.

oh gosh, jo's comments about changed identity made me re-read your description of what you were looking for and think of Jennifer Egan's Look At Me. Esp. because it totally talks about identity (and specifically, the loss of it - albeit in a slightly different way than you are describing) as it relates to the digital age/consumer culture.

I like books about people being kidnapped.

well, it is definitely about someone who prefers objects to people, but he still lives with his parents and goes out into the world. i don't know. it is such a great book that i don't think anyone should miss out on, even if it isn't a perfect fit for this search. i never was able to get my hands on his other book. but i met him when he came to the store, and he, too, was surprised that anyone had read his book! made me love him even more.

that sounds like something I would like

aww thanks everyone for your recommendations, this is going to be a big book order! I'm surprised that quite of few of these is actually in my uni library, including that graphic novel Skim (I don't know, academics here have pretty unusual taste).

Leviathan by Paul Auster comes to mind. (Actually, the whole disappearance theme is pretty Auster-y, but Leviathan is one that deals with it more explicitly than the others I can think of.)

My Abandonment is a haunting novel based on the true story of a socially estranged father and his daughter living off the grid outside Portland.

oh right!! nice one!

Maybe a little too action-y, but The Traveler.

And it is meant for kids, but fits this theme: How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found

i don't know if you are still looking, but this just crossed my path:

Come and Find Me. there is definitely an element of "digital reality." it sounds pretty good. if you read it, let me know??

did you try any of these suggestions?? any thoughts?

even if you aren't coming back to this thread, i can't believe i forgot to suggest Nelly's Version