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Party of One

The Loners' Manifesto

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Party of One

By: Anneli Rufus
Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
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About this listen

 An essential defense of the people the world loves to revile -- the loners -- yet without whom it would be lost

The Buddha. Rene Descartes. Emily Dickinson. Greta Garbo. Bobby Fischer. J. D. Salinger: Loners, all -- along with as many as 25 percent of the world's population. Loners keep to themselves, and like it that way.

Yet in the press, in films, in folklore, and nearly everywhere one looks, loners are tagged as losers and psychopaths, perverts and pity cases, ogres and mad bombers, elitists and wicked witches. Too often, loners buy into those messages and strive to change, making themselves miserable in the process by hiding their true nature -- and hiding from it. Loners as a group deserve to be reassessed -- to claim their rightful place, rather than be perceived as damaged goods that need to be "fixed."

In Party of One Anneli Rufus--a prize-winning, critically acclaimed writer with talent to burn -- has crafted a morally urgent, historically compelling tour de force -- a long-overdue argument in defense of the loner, then and now. Marshalling a polymath's easy erudition to make her case, assembling evidence from every conceivable arena of culture as well as interviews with experts and loners worldwide and her own acutely calibrated analysis, Rufus rebuts the prevailing notion that aloneness is indistinguishable from loneliness, the fallacy that all of those who are alone don't want to be, and wouldn't be, if only they knew how. Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships
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The book is excellent for true, healthy, content loners. Such an affirming book for a category of people constantly misunderstood and misrepresented. Love every bit of it.

BUT: the narrator is amateurish and irritating! The way she feels the need to make "male" voices whenever a male speech is quoted sounds horribly condescending. The need to imitate an Irish accent when the author speaks of Irish people is offensive. She didn't even bother to look up the pronunciation of famous political leaders' names (Valclav Havel is NOT pronounced VaKlav - a simple google search would have fixed that). The author correctly talks about "hikikomori" in Japanese culture, why does the narrator keep mispronouncing it as "hikikimori"?! Due to this, I can't listen to it anymore and will ask for a refund, as I find this the work of an amateur, not a professional voiceover artist that I am willing to pay for

Book is excellent narrator is awful and amateurish

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too drawn out . it would be improved if cut by half . could be better narrated with less flaws .

ok for a one off listen

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