Cristina Rivera Garza: Doorbell

I think it was Truman Capote who said that, to be alone or feel alone, there was no way to go to New York. She said it, if she said it, a little after betraying the trust of her wealthy friends, when they gave her the silent treatment for spreading their secrets in public. Years later it is possible to say that, to be alone, structurally alone, there is no way to go anywhere in the United States. Except for New York, where public transportation makes contact with others necessary, if not inevitable, most American cities are designed for the isolation produced by automobiles—whether speeding along or stuck on endless freeways—and for the absence of any form of public life other than consumption.

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