What We’re Reading: Woke Up Lonely

Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel (Graywolf Press 2013)

As the old saying goes: sometimes, we don’t realize we’re standing in the fire until we begin to feel the burn.

Today’s society, fast-paced and booming with technology, is perhaps so absorbed in keeping up with ourselves that we’ve failed to see the flames; the warning signs showing us how our communities are changing. At least, that’s what Fiona Maazel argues in her novel, Woke Up Lonely. This novel —witty, wild, and utterly original — is the perfect smoke detector for today’s readers. As long as they can keep away from Facebook long enough to read it, of course.

Woke Up Lonely follows Thurlow Dan, the founder of the Helix, an American cult promising to ‘cure’ loneliness. The group attempts to fix this twenty-first century malady through a system of over-sharing — communes, speed dating, mixers, and confession-sessions — and has quickly gained an enormous national following. In the middle of this whirlwind, however, we find Thurlow: lonelier than ever, desperately seeking communication with his ex-wife, Esme, and their daughter Ida. However, as the cult grows more influential, Thurlow finds himself in a dangerous relationship with North Korea — and even further from his relationship with his ex-wife (who, by the way, is a covert CIA agent). Sound crazy? It is. Fiona Maazel’s fiction takes the reader through a fun house of turns and tricks, knocking American society off its axis, and transporting readers to a world that is only slightly crazier than our own.

Or is it? It doesn’t take long before the reader begins to wonder how different the two worlds actually are. Many of Maazel’s themes hit just a little too close to home: perhaps the Helix’s online communes are a bit reminiscent of Facebook; maybe you have a stronger impact online than you do within your own household. Maazel presents these questions beneath a layer of witty humor that, when paired with the author’s topsy-turvy plot, almost completely masks the novel’s dark reality. However, once you realize that your laughs are turning quickly to winces, you become acutely aware of Maazel’s message: even in our fast-paced, constantly-connected society, we are all collectively alone.

At many points throughout the novel, Maazel takes a break from her smart humor, using the short relief to zone in on her message. Take the following passage, for example, involving Thurlow and Vicki, the woman he routinely hires for — ahem — personal company:

“He thought about… his wife and daughter and the life they had together, pillaged by a lonely guy who screwed up every chance he got. The lights went out. A siren cried.

He buzzed for Vicki. At least Vicki would kiss him hello and put her arms around him and be happier for it. He buzzed for her again and got no answer.”

Powerful statements like this are riddled throughout Maazel’s prose, grabbing the reader’s attention and holding it long after the final page. The author’s exploration of technology and corporation in America becomes the smoky smell we’ve been looking for — an indication of the burn soon to come.

Before reading this novel, I had not personally been drawn to wild, twisting plots like Maazel’s. Until this book, my opinion had been that the more life-like a work is, the better a reader can relate to it. So, when I first picked up Woke Up Lonely, I prepared myself for a run-of-the-mill novel on a futuristic society I couldn’t even imagine, much less relate to. However (and I’m not sure if this was a result of Maazel’s prose or her genius plot-crafting), I found myself wholly connected to both the plot and the characters stuck inside it. I read Maazel’s humor with the sinking feeling that  she knew something the rest of us didn’t — somehow, we were doomed to succumb to a society like the one she portrays in Woke Up Lonely. I couldn’t help feeling that perhaps someday, I will do exactly what Maazel predicts we will do: wake up lonely, with no way out.

I certainly don’t mean to be a downer, here. Of course, our society is different than the one Maazel portrays in many ways. However, my point is that the author’s message is hard-hitting and genuine, and much more relatable than I had anticipated it would be. By the end of the first few lines, I found myself completely sucked into Maazel’s world. And, by the end of the book, I found myself relating to loneliness in a way that made me feel (surprisingly) a little less, well, lonely.

Author Heidi Julavits describes Woke Up Lonely as “the novel equivalent of a sonic boom — it builds, explodes, it leaves your ears, mind, and soul ringing for days.” Truthfully, I couldn’t have said it better myself. My soul is still ringing from this novel. And that smoke smell, it sticks around.

Woke Up Lonely is a novel for today’s society. It’s fast, it’s gripping, it’s funny. Ultimately, it carries a message so real and so close, it’s hard for us to acknowledge. Fiona Maazel has, through intelligent prose and an intriguing plot, allowed us to step out of the fire for a moment — to smell the smoke, and to feel the flames singeing the edges of our lives.

Many authors have utilized this trend: sending a message to an audience through an over exaggerated, fictionalized, sensational story. How do you feel about these stories? Are you getting the message, or just hearing the fire alarm?