In Stuck, Anneli Rufus 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, many of them even say they want to make a change but somehow never get the job done. Blending personal anecdote, interview, and cultural criticism, Stuck is a wise and passionate exploration of the dreams we hold dearest ourselves and the road to actually achieving them. Tracing the many subtle ways in which American culture conspires to keep us stalled, Rufus delivers a long awaited diagnosis for our day and age. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel (at least for some): Rufus also tells the stories of people who managed to become unstuck or of others who, after much reflection, decided that where they are is best. After all, she says: What looks to you like paralysis looks perhaps to another like passion. What looks to you like a rut others might say is commitment, true absorption in a topic, a relationship, a career, a pursuit, a place. What looks to youlike boredom, others call commitment.

And even contentment.