In Don't Let Me Be Lonely, Rankine uses a first-person speaker, which gives the work the feeling of an internal monologue. The book does not contain a specific narrative arc. Instead, it uses the recollections and musings of the narrator, each of them their own scene, to paint a picture of American identity as Rankine understands it in 2004. The work is broken up into 18 sections that are separated by blank pages and an image of a TV with static on the screen.
In Part 1, the speaker recollects her musings on death as a child; she recounts always asking "Is he dead, is she dead?" about characters she saw on TV (6). She remembers her mother's miscarriage and her paternal grandmother's death as examples of death in her life. The speaker also touches on suicidal thoughts and a friend of hers who passed away from breast cancer in Part 1. In Part 2, the speaker describes her relationship with the television, noting that she leaves it on all the time in her room. After this, she tells the story of her friend with Alzheimer's who etched the words "this is the most miserable in my life" onto a chalkboard (17).
In Part 3, the speaker discusses George W Bush's election in 2000. She highlights the fact that Bush did not know the details about a hate crime in Texas. She connects Bush's election to a feeling of sadness which is caused by the knowledge that someone's life can not matter to someone else, particularly if that person holds a position of power. Part 3 also contains a discussion of the "FAV" button of the TV remote and the speaker reveals that her two saved channels are the independent film channel and HBO. At the beginning of Part 4, the speaker reveals that she often can't sleep and instead watches TV. Many antidepressant commercials come across the screen while she is up late. The speaker then tells the reader that she has been prescribed sleeping pills by a doctor, but that she wishes she could give them away to someone else.
In Part 5, the speaker tells the story of a girl who is mistaken for being suicidal when she climbs on the roof of a building to escape the heat. In Part 6, the speaker tells us about a game in the Museum of Emotions in London that asks questions about Princess Diana's death. The speaker also interacts with her mother in Part 6, who tells the speaker that she would rather the speaker be successful than happy. After this, there is a scene between a son and his dying father about the regrets one has at the end of their life. The speaker then reveals that the son is a friend of hers and that he becomes severely depressed following the death of his father. She goes to visit them and they watch movies together at the end of Part 6.
In Part 7, the speaker tells the reader about Timothy McVeigh, who was a domestic terrorist. The speaker moves from the anecdote about McVeigh into a meditation on what it means to forgive. She then has a dream that she is at a party hosted by the Kennedys. In Part 8, the speaker meets with her editor to talk about her latest project. The speaker muses on why she is interested in talking about the liver. The speaker then reveals that she rarely cries. Instead of crying, her body manifests emotional pain physically with a sharp pain in her abdomen. The speaker feels this abdominal pain when she is hearing about Abner Louima (a Haitian man who was brutally assaulted by the New York City police) or gun violence on the television.
In Part 9, the speaker introduces her sister, whose children and husband have died in a car crash. The speaker's sister is heartbroken and feels like her life is falling apart. The speaker then describes seeing a college friend in SoHo whose parents have just died. She notes that the friend seems fine. In Part 10, the speaker describes a news story about a 13-year-old boy who is tried as an adult for accidentally murdering his 6-year-old neighbor while play-wrestling. The speaker describes a dream in which she is sitting atop a huge pill bottle.
In Part 11, the speaker tells the story of Richard Tools, who was the first man to ever receive an artificial heart. The speaker then goes out to eat pizza with her friend and they discuss literature. The speaker then moves on to a discussion about the statistics of sexual assault. Finally, the speaker recounts being on vacation in the Caribbean and being prescribed expired medication. She takes it and has no adverse side effects. In Part 12, the speaker spends time with her sister, who is compiling a portfolio of information about her children for an insurance adjustor.
In Part 13, the speaker moves into a discussion of 9/11 and its aftereffects. She overhears two women arguing about Rudy Giuliani on the bus. She visits the site of the twin towers a few days after the terrorist attacks and takes note of the destruction. She then uses Hegel to analyze Osama bin Laden and terrorists in general. In Part 14, the speaker has a conversation with a cab driver. The cab driver complains about the rise in xenophobia following 9/11. Part 14 ends with a message that everyone in NYC gets from USPS regarding suspicious mail and it makes the speaker feel afraid.
In Part 15, the speaker discusses Mahalia Jackson. She then describes a dream in which she apologizes to everyone she interacts with. The speaker then recounts a story that her friend told her about meeting a Holocaust survivor in Los Angeles. She then moves into a meditation on the current events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Part 16, the speaker celebrates her fortieth birthday. Her parents send her flowers. She meditates on what it means to be forty. She then goes through an airport security checkpoint and is asked to drink out of her water bottle, to take off her shoes, and whether she has a fever. At the end of Part 16, the speaker visits her grandmother at her grandmother's nursing home.
In Part 17, the speaker has a conversation with a woman who is hailing a cab on the street. It causes her to question nationalist propaganda surrounding the Iraq War. The speaker then recounts an elevator ride in which the super of her building is criticized for not putting up an American flag following 9/11. The speaker then moves her analysis to South Africa and notes her relief when the South African president made AIDS medication readily available to every patient who needed it. While she is walking down the street, a woman hands her an Evangelical Christian pamphlet. Part 17 concludes with a description of the speaker's sister waking up from night-sweats caused by the antidepressant she is taking. In Part 18, the speaker has a conversation with her husband about a dream she had that concerns her. She and her husband interpret the dream differently. The speaker closes Don't Let Me Be Lonely with a meditation on her use of language.
