"You need an apartment alone even if it"s over a garage," declared Helen Gurley Brown in her 1962 bestseller "Sex and the Single Girl". To Brown, solo living afforded the 41 to cultivate the self, furnish the mind and work late, and so on. Young women 42 enjoy their best years without a(n) 43 , she advised, as this not only 44 the foundation for stronger marriages 45 gave them a lifestyle to fall back on 46 they found themselves alone again.
47 at the time, Brown"s counsel seems sensible now. Certainly both 48 have taken it to heart, marrying later, divorcing 49 and living alone in larger numbers than ever before. 50 little is known about the wider social 51 of this unprecedented boom, writes Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at New York University. His new book "Going Solo" offers a 52 look at the lures and perils of living alone.
Mr. Klinenberg 53 those who see the rise of solo living as yet another 54 of the decline of civic society. 55 marriage is no longer the ticket to adulthood, a desire to live alone is perfectly 56 , he writes. Young adults view it as a rite of passage, a period of personal growth before possibly 57 , Its cultural acceptance has helped to 58 women from bad marriages and oppressive families, 59 them a space to return to civic life. And as elderly adults live longer than ever before, often without a partner, many hope to stay 60 for as long as possible.