Stuck Why We Can't (or Wont't) Move On

In Stuck the author of the highly praised Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto identifies a rather striking social trend: many people are stuck. Be it in the wrong relationship, the wrong career, the wrong town, or with the wrong friends, some of them even say they want to make a change but . . . somehow . . . never get the job done. A self-described "adolescent in size-ten shoes who is also a happily married homeowner with a master's degree," Anneli Rufus knows whereof she speaks. In this book, she draws on her own life experience as well as interviews with others who are also-in some way or another, and to differing degrees-immobilized. Tracing the many subtle ways in which American culture often conspires to keep us stalled, Rufus delivers a long-awaited diagnosis for our day and age: stuck. But there can be a light at the end of the tunnel; Rufus also tells the stories of people who managed to become unstuck and of others who, after much reflection, decided that where they are is best. After all, she says: "What looks to you like paralysis looks to others like passion. What looks to you like a rut, others would call commitment, true absorption in a topic, a relationship, a career, a pursuit, a place. What looks to you like boredom, others call commitment. And even contentment." Stuck is a wise and passionate exploration of the dreams we hold dearest for ourselves-and the road to actually achieving them.