Solitude was a compelling read with focus, solid writing, an important theme and a narrative that actually made sense. Absence on the other hand, while still containing a few salient points, was disjointed and made weird segues into other topics. I found it really hard to keep going on reading this book and it was a real struggle to finish it. Not Harris' best work by far but that doesn't mean he's not capable of awesome work - read Solitude.