In Farther Away, Franzen discusses the many ideas floating around his head in the years following the death of his friend and colleague, David Foster Wallace, another very famous author who committed suicide in 2008. The title of the short story collection is a reference to the name of the island where he goes to mourn the death (in the essay with the same title). "Más Afuera," is what the locals call the island where Robinson Crusoe's story was alleged to have happened, so he uses his camping trip on Mas Afuera as a jumping off point to discuss loneliness and art.
This connection between loneliness and art is at the center of another central thematic concern in these essays: Is depression a necessary and essential part of the life of an artist, or can art come from other places than pain? The issue of pain is a central issue in many essays in this collection: "Pain Won't Kill You," for instance. Look how many of the stories feature negative emotions in their titles: "Hornets" (indicating pain), "The Ugly Mediterranean," "David Foster Wallace" (because it implies the subject matter of his suicide), "Authentic But Horrible," "The End of the Binge" (a play on The End of the Affair, which is about crippling loneliness and jealousy). These stories are not for the light-hearted reader, but they are deeply meaningful.
This is a signal that Franzen is not properly a post-modernist, but rather he (along with Mark Leynor, David Foster Wallace, et al.) represent a different movement in art—a return to sincerity from the post-modern realm of irony. Instead of using these instances of pain as a reminder of life's meaninglessness, Franzen thoughtfully explores the issues as little emotional labyrinths to be solved.
This would be to say that Franzen finds hope in the experiences, and more than that, as he notices in "Farther Away," the title essay, he knows how to forgive himself (when he can't find the bird he wants to watch), which is something his friend could never quite manage to do. That essay ends with him laying his friend's ashes to rest on the lonely island of "Farther Away," or Más Afuera in Spanish. Franzen honors the suicide of his friend circumspectly, but he resolves to find peace and forgiveness instead of sharing the same demise.
