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The Politics of Lonely: Why Is Friendship So Hard?

by Lee Arden

Friendship under pressure

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Regular price $29.06 USD Sale price $29.06 USD

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Friendship under pressure

Lee Arden examines adult friendship as both an intimate bond and a relationship shaped by material conditions. Drawing on interviews, research, and personal narrative, the book connects loneliness and the difficulty of sustaining close ties with pressures including precarious work, unaffordable housing, and a shrinking social safety net. It gives particular attention to friendship’s importance in queer life, while also acknowledging disappointment and conflict between friends. The book’s central concern is how people create durable forms of care and connection amid conditions that can make community harder to sustain.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Adults thinking about how to build or maintain close friendships
  • Readers interested in queer friendship and chosen family
  • Those exploring the social and economic conditions surrounding loneliness

Themes

Adult friendshipLoneliness and social connectionQueer relationships and chosen familyEconomic conditions and community care

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Why is it hard to make and keep friends as an adult? Even if you finally find time to see each other, can you connect more deeply than just catching up over coffee? How many do you count as ride-or-die pals who'll always show up with effervescent banter and deep conversation -- your "chosen family?"

Widespread loneliness reflects a world of crappy jobs and unaffordable housing that makes it almost impossible to have close, interwoven friendships. A dwindling social safety net takes a toll on us and on our relationships. Particularly for queer people, friendships can be crucial relations of equality, constancy, and care. Still, we disappoint each other and fall into irreparable conflict.

A less lonely world is possible. Through interviews, research, and personal narrative, this book shows how people build tight connections despite living in the austere conditions of colonial capitalism -- boldly weaving a new social fabric as this one unravels.

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Customer reviews

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Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Thomas DiMassa

Great service and fast service

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Olivia

Smooth.