# Books where the protagonist is alone most of the time

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-where-the-protagonist-is-alone-most-of-the-time/407119>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 7, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-where-the-protagonist-is-alone-most-of-the-time/407119 "2007-06-07T14:41:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-where-the-protagonist-is-alone-most-of-the-time/407119/1 "2007-06-07T14:41:10Z")

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I recently read Stephen King’s “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan.” It got me to think about how Stephen writes a lot of tales with the main person being alone. In addition to the above, there’s “Gerald’s Game,” “Misery” and the lovely short story “Survivor Type.”

I guess the most famous classical book where this happens is Ernest Hemminway’s “The Old Man and The Sea.”

What others?

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**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-where-the-protagonist-is-alone-most-of-the-time/407119/2 "2007-06-07T14:46:47Z")

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Robinson Caruso  
My Side of the Mountain  
Varous Jack London stories

Brian

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**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-where-the-protagonist-is-alone-most-of-the-time/407119/3 "2007-06-07T14:53:37Z")

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Life of Pi.

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**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-where-the-protagonist-is-alone-most-of-the-time/407119/4 "2007-06-07T15:03:05Z")

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Agatha Christie wrote one, under her ‘romance’ pen name. It was about a woman who has to spend the day alone at a desert train station. She starts examining herself for the first time in her life and realizes she’s a horrible person who has manipulated everyone in her family for years, and they all secretly hate her. But by the time she gets home, she’s talked herself back into her lifelong self-deception.