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corvuscorax's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Phew, needed something like this in a little while. Eminently readable, with some beautiful turns of phrase and solid construction. But this book isn't just... right, it's also good. The way the plot kept diverging and then folding in on itself, you kept meeting new people just to learn they had already been part of the story in some way, it all felt deeply human and it was so natural that I could really, truly get attached to all the stories without getting bored or asking myself why so-and-so got a few pages when we had been at the climax of another character's arc just paragraphs beforehand. There were a few times where I felt a little uncomfortable with wording choices, but it all seemed like it was part of the characters' worldview and it fit. Denise's story felt very real and it felt close to me, and I hope that she finally learned to get what she wanted.
The "repeating the word corrections" gimmick was funny about the first five times, then it progressively got a little more annoying each time. Still, gosh, this book was so good.
The "repeating the word corrections" gimmick was funny about the first five times, then it progressively got a little more annoying each time. Still, gosh, this book was so good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Death of parent, Dementia, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Excrement, and Sexual content
Moderate: Antisemitism, Gun violence, and Racism
evetoi's review against another edition
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Dementia and Excrement
Minor: Racism
tangledinblue's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen's 2001 study of the turn of the millennium, begins with an electric chapter in the home of Enid Lambert, the neurotic and ever-suffering housewife to husband Alfred, the once formidable patriarch whose mind and body are rapidly going to seed. Franzen's picture of the Midwestern home of elderly empty nesters is frightfully accurate, describing Nordstrom bags overfilled with ephemera that I myself have stepped around in carpeted hallways and dusty basement pool tables holding burnt-out Christmas tree lights I have tried to illume. The alarm bell of anxiety is familiar as well. A house haunted by words unsaid and hopes unrealized. Franzen's stateless Midwestern microcosm, St Jude (the patron saint of lost causes, no less) is the American Dream in all its schlubby, misanthropic glory. Your parents' and grandparents' houses are immortalized here, in St Jude.
Franzen's strongest suit is the scientific way he captures his cast of dysfunctional characters, pins them down, and dissects them right there in front of you. Some tropes that would be hackneyed in the wrong writer's hands (the burnt-out professor sleeps with the pretty young student? Groundbreaking.) are made engaging and fresh by dancing prose and bracing wit. The five protagonists are insufferable in their unique ways, and we get to witness their lives falling apart due to their hangups and bad habits.
Reading about nasty people in nasty situations is a matter of taste-if you don't like it, don't bother; but the merit of reading unlikeable protagonists is, of course, the light it shines on your own shortcomings. Unlike trashy reality TV where we can point and laugh at people we are superior to, literature leaves little room for displacement. You have to lean into it: the absurdity, the disgust, the realism of it. You're weird because of your parents, just like the Lambert children.
The protagonists are four people caught in the orbit of the force Alfred Lambert. When their sun starts dimming, they are left to prepare for the rapidly approaching supernova and deal with the burns they're stuck with. The most compelling thing in this work is Alfred, present in the background of every story. He is the driving force behind every action his children undertake. An angry father who no longer exists is haunting the narrative. The story reaches its climax when each of them comes to realize the true nature of their relationship with their father, for better or for worse.
However, when we see through his eyes, his memory loss, hallucinations, and confusion have left him a shell of a man. Franzen's change in tone and style when writing Alfred to immerse the reader in his experience is unlike anything I've ever read. It's scary and heart-wrenching and perfect.
Read this book, if for nothing else, for moments like the page-long run-on sentence describing Alfred losing his way in a sentence, a conflation of "crepuscular" and "corpuscular" to describe the particulate twilight of an old man's train of thought, a meeting in a forest of that old man and his younger self, and the successful completion of that sentence to a person unaware of the depths of his confusion.
Franzen's prose is perhaps not beautiful, but it is witty and it is precise. Its flawless construction and flow had me underlining and dog-earing almost unconsciously.
This is a book about economic corrections and the turn of the century, and only some of what Franzen does works for me. If it gets docked any stars it’s because of the Lithuania nonsense. Lithuania may have been more interesting when the book was published or to someone more economically-minded, but to me it seemed like an idea that could've been pulled off in a few pages and was instead drawn out chaff. This is somewhat made up for in other, surprising social commentary in the form of moments like the woman on the cruise and a brief interlude about crime, justice, and grief; or Robin Passafaro's unsettling backstory that forgives this side character of her foibles.
"Tour de force" gets thrown around at an obnoxious frequency in book reviews, but I would be remiss to not say it now. Franzen wrote The Corrections at the turn of the century but it reads like it was written in the 2020s, despite what it really is- the last cultural snapshot of pre-9/11 America. If I had to explain to an alien the human condition using only literature, I would give it a stack of classics and The Corrections, and ask it to forgive us our trespasses.
Franzen's strongest suit is the scientific way he captures his cast of dysfunctional characters, pins them down, and dissects them right there in front of you. Some tropes that would be hackneyed in the wrong writer's hands (the burnt-out professor sleeps with the pretty young student? Groundbreaking.) are made engaging and fresh by dancing prose and bracing wit. The five protagonists are insufferable in their unique ways, and we get to witness their lives falling apart due to their hangups and bad habits.
Reading about nasty people in nasty situations is a matter of taste-if you don't like it, don't bother; but the merit of reading unlikeable protagonists is, of course, the light it shines on your own shortcomings. Unlike trashy reality TV where we can point and laugh at people we are superior to, literature leaves little room for displacement. You have to lean into it: the absurdity, the disgust, the realism of it. You're weird because of your parents, just like the Lambert children.
The protagonists are four people caught in the orbit of the force Alfred Lambert. When their sun starts dimming, they are left to prepare for the rapidly approaching supernova and deal with the burns they're stuck with. The most compelling thing in this work is Alfred, present in the background of every story. He is the driving force behind every action his children undertake. An angry father who no longer exists is haunting the narrative. The story reaches its climax when each of them comes to realize the true nature of their relationship with their father, for better or for worse.
However, when we see through his eyes, his memory loss, hallucinations, and confusion have left him a shell of a man. Franzen's change in tone and style when writing Alfred to immerse the reader in his experience is unlike anything I've ever read. It's scary and heart-wrenching and perfect.
Read this book, if for nothing else, for moments like the page-long run-on sentence describing Alfred losing his way in a sentence, a conflation of "crepuscular" and "corpuscular" to describe the particulate twilight of an old man's train of thought, a meeting in a forest of that old man and his younger self, and the successful completion of that sentence to a person unaware of the depths of his confusion.
Franzen's prose is perhaps not beautiful, but it is witty and it is precise. Its flawless construction and flow had me underlining and dog-earing almost unconsciously.
This is a book about economic corrections and the turn of the century, and only some of what Franzen does works for me. If it gets docked any stars it’s because of the Lithuania nonsense. Lithuania may have been more interesting when the book was published or to someone more economically-minded, but to me it seemed like an idea that could've been pulled off in a few pages and was instead drawn out chaff. This is somewhat made up for in other, surprising social commentary in the form of moments like the woman on the cruise and a brief interlude about crime, justice, and grief; or Robin Passafaro's unsettling backstory that forgives this side character of her foibles.
"Tour de force" gets thrown around at an obnoxious frequency in book reviews, but I would be remiss to not say it now. Franzen wrote The Corrections at the turn of the century but it reads like it was written in the 2020s, despite what it really is- the last cultural snapshot of pre-9/11 America. If I had to explain to an alien the human condition using only literature, I would give it a stack of classics and The Corrections, and ask it to forgive us our trespasses.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Excrement, Alcoholism, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Self harm and Murder
Minor: Racism and Drug use
Father suffers from debilitating dementia, bouts of psychosis, and suicidal ideation. Graphic descriptions of his experience as well as his family trying to treat him. One son has alcoholism and depression w/ graphic descriptions of both experiences. No adult/minor relationships or assault but two instances of men in positions of power sleeping with much younger women. A brief segment of the story is dedicated to a murderer, his crime, and the mother of the victim’s revenge fantasies.mondovertigo's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Excrement, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Car accident, Drug use, and Alcohol
bail33's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is one of my favourites I’ve ever read. It provides strong critique of late-capitalist America and the main disconnects between Baby Boomers and Gen Xers but manages to weave it all into a story focused on characters worth investing in.
You probably won’t finish the book feeling proud of any of these characters. You probably won’t want to declare your love for them. You’ll probably understand them, sympathize with them, and feel empathy for them— but you’ll be ashamed of it.
It is an extremely character-driven book and all of the characters are beyond flawed, but they feel like real people.
The book is slow-paced but very descriptive and well-written. If this is what Franzen wrote when he was trying to write a best seller then I’m excited to see what he wrote when he wasn’t.
You probably won’t finish the book feeling proud of any of these characters. You probably won’t want to declare your love for them. You’ll probably understand them, sympathize with them, and feel empathy for them— but you’ll be ashamed of it.
It is an extremely character-driven book and all of the characters are beyond flawed, but they feel like real people.
The book is slow-paced but very descriptive and well-written. If this is what Franzen wrote when he was trying to write a best seller then I’m excited to see what he wrote when he wasn’t.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Excrement
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Death of parent, Drug use, Medical content, Mental illness, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol
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