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renatasnacks's review against another edition
3.0
Here is a story about Jonathan Franzen: I read [b:The Corrections|3805|The Corrections|Jonathan Franzen|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355011305s/3805.jpg|941200] several years ago, perhaps just after it was at its zeitgeistiest. Yes that's a word. What are you looking at.
Anyway, I remembered really liking it, and several years later when I found myself contemplating a fairly limited audiobook selection at my parents' home library, I checked out an audio version of the Corrections and listened to most of it on a trip. It was not as good as I remembered it being, but I thought, well maybe now my tastes are more SOPHISTICATED. I had listened to something like 9 of 10 discs of it and then had to return it to their library. I decided to get the audiobook from my home library so I could finish the last disc. Then I realized that my parents' library had the ABRIDGED version and the real version was at least 20 discs long. I was unwilling to dedicate the time to listening to the entire 20 discs, but I think that The Corrections was probably at least as good as I had remembered it being. Jonathan Franzen uses a LOT of words, but by God, he earns them.
******
OK I wrote all of that as a note when I added this book but before I started listening to it
like
is Jonathan Franzen parodying himself?
Like
when he goes to China to investigate the factory where his puffin golf club cover is made, because he loves birds sooo much...
...
is that for real.
When he suggests that maybe if David Foster Wallace had gotten into birdwatching, he wouldn't have committed suicide...
is that for real??
There are some good essays in this collection, but I think I already read them all on the internet already, and then there are just like A BILLION OF JONATHAN FRANZEN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT BIRDS.
I used to feel bad for Franzen because he was forever going to be known as DFW's less-talented friend but now I think I feel bad because he's so obsessed with birds??
Oh I forgot there are also some hilariously crotchety thoughts in here about technology, like literally he is mad when people end cell phone conversations with "Love you!"
Go put a bird on it, Franzen.
Anyway, I remembered really liking it, and several years later when I found myself contemplating a fairly limited audiobook selection at my parents' home library, I checked out an audio version of the Corrections and listened to most of it on a trip. It was not as good as I remembered it being, but I thought, well maybe now my tastes are more SOPHISTICATED. I had listened to something like 9 of 10 discs of it and then had to return it to their library. I decided to get the audiobook from my home library so I could finish the last disc. Then I realized that my parents' library had the ABRIDGED version and the real version was at least 20 discs long. I was unwilling to dedicate the time to listening to the entire 20 discs, but I think that The Corrections was probably at least as good as I had remembered it being. Jonathan Franzen uses a LOT of words, but by God, he earns them.
******
OK I wrote all of that as a note when I added this book but before I started listening to it
like
is Jonathan Franzen parodying himself?
Like
when he goes to China to investigate the factory where his puffin golf club cover is made, because he loves birds sooo much...
...
is that for real.
When he suggests that maybe if David Foster Wallace had gotten into birdwatching, he wouldn't have committed suicide...
is that for real??
There are some good essays in this collection, but I think I already read them all on the internet already, and then there are just like A BILLION OF JONATHAN FRANZEN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT BIRDS.
I used to feel bad for Franzen because he was forever going to be known as DFW's less-talented friend but now I think I feel bad because he's so obsessed with birds??
Oh I forgot there are also some hilariously crotchety thoughts in here about technology, like literally he is mad when people end cell phone conversations with "Love you!"
Go put a bird on it, Franzen.
adamvolle's review against another edition
4.0
As a newly-converted environmentalist I found myself feeling particularly receptive to a lot of these pieces.
awood5's review against another edition
3.0
I listened to this on audio book which was certainly not the move. His reviews are actually quite good but it feels weird to read one review after another, especially on audio book. Farther Away and David Foster Wallace were my favorites, and I have developed a sort of interest in birds' issues thanks to Franzen.
m1r's review against another edition
2.0
okay franzen che ammetti di essere un vecchio lamentoso, ma a tutto c'è un limite.
shirohige's review against another edition
3.0
Me gustó mucho este libro, ya que al ser un compendio de ensayos y reseñas sobre un sin fin de cosas que apasionan/atormentan a Franzen. Abre varias puertas a cosas leídas, vistas y reenfoca en un ángulo que se me hace digno de abordar.
Por ejemplo: como plantea la creación de los personajes de su obra cumbre '[b:Las correcciones|88309|Las correcciones|Jonathan Franzen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424026487s/88309.jpg|941200]', el análisis que hace de '[b:Escapada|12475618|Escapada|Alice Munro|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1329844817s/12475618.jpg|2040369]' de Alice Munro -y que probablemente me obligue a releerlo- o el sin fin de libros que reseña, desde clásicos como 'El Jugador´de Dostoievski a libros que quiere reivindicar como ' El hombre que amaba a los niños'.
Más no se queda trabado en el análisis de lecturas sino que busca sentido literario también en otras fuentes: desde su amor por la observación de aves (un tema que trata no con poco temor ante la intensiva disminución poblacional de estas en el mundo), ese leviathan ambiental en que se ha convertido China, o claramente en el relato más personal y que tiene que ver con la muerte de su amigo [a:David Foster Wallace|4339|David Foster Wallace|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1466019433p2/4339.jpg] .
Si me detengo en este último es el que mejor balancea- y puede servir como muestra- el espíritu de esta colección. 'Más Afuera' cuenta sobre el viaje del escritor a la Isla Alejandro Selkirk del Archipielago Juan Fernandez, donde deposita parte de las cenizas de su amigo, así como dedica no poca parte de su tiempo al avistamiento de pájaros y -cómo no- a la lectura.
*En unas líneas dice que el pan blanco chileno es fome ¡Jonathan Franzen no cachái nada!
*Acá algunos extractos que me gustaron:
"Intentar amar a toda la humanidad puede ser una empresa loable, pero curiosamente se centra en uno mismo, en el bienestar moral y espiritual de uno mismo. Mientras que para amar a una persona concreta, e identificarse con sus esfuerzos y alegrías como si fueran propios, uno tiene que renunciar a una parte de sí."
"En abstracto es posible imaginar y proponer cuanto existe bajo el sol. Pero el escritor siempre está limitado por aquello a lo que realmente es capaz de dar vida: hacer verosímil, hacer legible,hacer digno de simpatía, hacer entretenido, hacer convincente y, sobretodo, hacer singular y original."
"La intimidad, para mí, no consiste en mantener mi vida oculta a los demás, sino en ahorrarme la instrucción de las vidas privadas de los otros."
"Uno lamenta no haber estado allí, del mismo modo que lamenta no haber montado en trineo con Natasha Rostov."
"La literatura transgresora, secretamente o no, siempre se dirige al mundo burgués del que dependen. Como lector de narrativa transgresora, uno tiene dos opciones: o se escandaliza o escandaliza a otros por el hecho de no escandalizarse."
"Los maniacos, los esquizofrenicos y los depresivos a menudo tienen las convicción de que absolutamente todo en su vida está colmado de significado, tan colmado, de hecho, que localizar,
descifrar y organizar el significado puede anular el acto mismo de vivir."
Por ejemplo: como plantea la creación de los personajes de su obra cumbre '[b:Las correcciones|88309|Las correcciones|Jonathan Franzen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424026487s/88309.jpg|941200]', el análisis que hace de '[b:Escapada|12475618|Escapada|Alice Munro|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1329844817s/12475618.jpg|2040369]' de Alice Munro -y que probablemente me obligue a releerlo- o el sin fin de libros que reseña, desde clásicos como 'El Jugador´de Dostoievski a libros que quiere reivindicar como ' El hombre que amaba a los niños'.
Más no se queda trabado en el análisis de lecturas sino que busca sentido literario también en otras fuentes: desde su amor por la observación de aves (un tema que trata no con poco temor ante la intensiva disminución poblacional de estas en el mundo), ese leviathan ambiental en que se ha convertido China, o claramente en el relato más personal y que tiene que ver con la muerte de su amigo [a:David Foster Wallace|4339|David Foster Wallace|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1466019433p2/4339.jpg] .
Si me detengo en este último es el que mejor balancea- y puede servir como muestra- el espíritu de esta colección. 'Más Afuera' cuenta sobre el viaje del escritor a la Isla Alejandro Selkirk del Archipielago Juan Fernandez, donde deposita parte de las cenizas de su amigo, así como dedica no poca parte de su tiempo al avistamiento de pájaros y -cómo no- a la lectura.
*En unas líneas dice que el pan blanco chileno es fome ¡Jonathan Franzen no cachái nada!
*Acá algunos extractos que me gustaron:
"Intentar amar a toda la humanidad puede ser una empresa loable, pero curiosamente se centra en uno mismo, en el bienestar moral y espiritual de uno mismo. Mientras que para amar a una persona concreta, e identificarse con sus esfuerzos y alegrías como si fueran propios, uno tiene que renunciar a una parte de sí."
"En abstracto es posible imaginar y proponer cuanto existe bajo el sol. Pero el escritor siempre está limitado por aquello a lo que realmente es capaz de dar vida: hacer verosímil, hacer legible,hacer digno de simpatía, hacer entretenido, hacer convincente y, sobretodo, hacer singular y original."
"La intimidad, para mí, no consiste en mantener mi vida oculta a los demás, sino en ahorrarme la instrucción de las vidas privadas de los otros."
"Uno lamenta no haber estado allí, del mismo modo que lamenta no haber montado en trineo con Natasha Rostov."
"La literatura transgresora, secretamente o no, siempre se dirige al mundo burgués del que dependen. Como lector de narrativa transgresora, uno tiene dos opciones: o se escandaliza o escandaliza a otros por el hecho de no escandalizarse."
"Los maniacos, los esquizofrenicos y los depresivos a menudo tienen las convicción de que absolutamente todo en su vida está colmado de significado, tan colmado, de hecho, que localizar,
descifrar y organizar el significado puede anular el acto mismo de vivir."
jwmcoaching's review against another edition
2.0
Although I love Franzen, especially his essays, I felt like this was essentially a thrown together collection of "b-sides". Some of these pieces are quality Franzen essays, but a lot of them are simply intros to novels or lectures and speeches. I wanted more personal essays!
sushai's review against another edition
2.0
Nothing against Franzen, the book started out strong, but there were too many essays on books, stories, and authors I haven't read, so much of it was irrelevant to me.
plantbirdwoman's review against another edition
4.0
The famously cranky writer Jonathan Franzen, who once dissed Oprah and her book club, has published this book of essays which gives some insight into some of his crankiness, how his mind works, and how he thinks about writing - his own and that of others. It is an eclectic collection of essays ranging from such subjects as modern technology to birding and ecology to literary criticism. I found myself most often agreeing with him about the things that annoy him and I was very interested to read of the fellow writers whom he championed here, most of whom I had never read and of some of whom I had never heard. After reading this book, I'm adding several of them to my "to be read" list.
I share with Franzen a passion for birds and birding and so the most interesting essays for me were the ones related to that subject, although, often, they are not only about that subject. The essay which gives the book its title, "Farther Away," concerns Franzen's trip to a lonely island off the coast of Chile called Masafuera (literally, Farther Away). He carries with him a copy of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and a small box containing some of the ashes of his friend, the writer David Foster Wallace, which he will scatter on the island. He will be alone on the island for a few days and he hopes to be able to see the Masafuera rayadito, an endangered native songbird. He ruminates about being alone, about writing novels and the value of reading novels, about the impact of invasive species on the island, and he tries to come to terms with the loss of Wallace to suicide. He writes of his friend:
Interestingly, he writes of his efforts to get Wallace to care about and find pleasure in the world of Nature and particularly of birds, but Wallace couldn't be bothered. He seemed unable to get out of himself long enough to appreciate such a world. A bit further along in the essay, Franzen tellingly writes "A funny thing about Robinson Crusoe is that he never, in twenty-eight years on his Island of Despair, becomes bored." He may have been trapped on a desert island, but he was never a "prisoner on the island of himself."
"Farther Away" was my favorite of these essays, but a close second was "The Chinese Puffin," the story of his trip to China and of meeting birders there and learning about the nascent ecological movement in that vast country. It was a sad and frustrating tale to hear of how so many birds - and other animals - are being hounded into extinction by a dirty environment and rampant industrial development, and yet it was also hopeful in that there is a small cadre of people who do care deeply about the natural world and are fighting the good fight to save the remnant of it that is left.
More difficult for me to read - I had to hurry past some sections - was "The Ugly Mediterranean" which is about the cultural tradition of slaughtering songbirds on migration. It's estimated that a billion of the little birds are trapped and slaughtered each year as they make their way from Africa to their summer range in Europe.
I don't want to leave the impression that these essays are just about birds. A good number of them are about fiction. "The Greatest Family Ever Storied" is about Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children, which is highly praised by Franzen. (Never heard of it or her.) "On The Laughing Policeman is about the writing of the Swedish authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, a happily married couple who wrote a series of ten books about their policeman, Inspector Martin Beck. I'd heard good things about this series before and it is actually already on my TBR list. Now, maybe I'll move it up a few notches.
There are also essays on Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening (Again, never heard of it or him), James Purdy's, the short stories of Alice Munro (He's a big fan.), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and Paula Fox's Desperate Characters. Throughout many of these essays, the ghost of David Wallace looms as Franzen struggles through his sadness and anger over the waste of his death. One of the essays included is his eulogy given at Wallace's memorial service.
Much of Franzen's crankiness can be traced to technology and the misuse or abuse of technology. "I Just Called to Say I Love You" is about the rudeness of people who use their cell phones in public and insist on inflicting the most intimate details of their lives on those around them. He remarks upon the fairly recent phenomenon of these people ending every conversation with "I love you" or more often "Love you." As a fellow sufferer, I found myself nodding in agreement.
Well, I could go on. The twenty-two essays in this collection cover a very wide range of subjects but all are written with a lucidity and straightforwardness and are often autobiographical and revelatory of Franzen's private life and thoughts. I came away from them feeling that I understood the man and his writing much better. I read Freedom and enjoyed it. I think perhaps now I am ready for The Corrections. After all, Oprah liked it.
I share with Franzen a passion for birds and birding and so the most interesting essays for me were the ones related to that subject, although, often, they are not only about that subject. The essay which gives the book its title, "Farther Away," concerns Franzen's trip to a lonely island off the coast of Chile called Masafuera (literally, Farther Away). He carries with him a copy of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and a small box containing some of the ashes of his friend, the writer David Foster Wallace, which he will scatter on the island. He will be alone on the island for a few days and he hopes to be able to see the Masafuera rayadito, an endangered native songbird. He ruminates about being alone, about writing novels and the value of reading novels, about the impact of invasive species on the island, and he tries to come to terms with the loss of Wallace to suicide. He writes of his friend:
He was a lifelong prisoner on the island of himself... Fiction was his way off the island, and as long as it was working for him - as long as he'd been able to pour his love and passion into preparing his lonely dispatches, and as long as these dispatches were coming as urgent and fresh and honest news to the mainland - he'd achieved a measure of happiness and hope for himself. When his hope for fiction died, after years of struggle with the new novel, there was no other way out but death. If boredom is the soil in which the seeds of addiction sprout, and if the phenomenology and the teleology of suicidality are the same as those of addiction, it seems fair to say that David died of boredom.
Interestingly, he writes of his efforts to get Wallace to care about and find pleasure in the world of Nature and particularly of birds, but Wallace couldn't be bothered. He seemed unable to get out of himself long enough to appreciate such a world. A bit further along in the essay, Franzen tellingly writes "A funny thing about Robinson Crusoe is that he never, in twenty-eight years on his Island of Despair, becomes bored." He may have been trapped on a desert island, but he was never a "prisoner on the island of himself."
"Farther Away" was my favorite of these essays, but a close second was "The Chinese Puffin," the story of his trip to China and of meeting birders there and learning about the nascent ecological movement in that vast country. It was a sad and frustrating tale to hear of how so many birds - and other animals - are being hounded into extinction by a dirty environment and rampant industrial development, and yet it was also hopeful in that there is a small cadre of people who do care deeply about the natural world and are fighting the good fight to save the remnant of it that is left.
More difficult for me to read - I had to hurry past some sections - was "The Ugly Mediterranean" which is about the cultural tradition of slaughtering songbirds on migration. It's estimated that a billion of the little birds are trapped and slaughtered each year as they make their way from Africa to their summer range in Europe.
I don't want to leave the impression that these essays are just about birds. A good number of them are about fiction. "The Greatest Family Ever Storied" is about Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children, which is highly praised by Franzen. (Never heard of it or her.) "On The Laughing Policeman is about the writing of the Swedish authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, a happily married couple who wrote a series of ten books about their policeman, Inspector Martin Beck. I'd heard good things about this series before and it is actually already on my TBR list. Now, maybe I'll move it up a few notches.
There are also essays on Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening (Again, never heard of it or him), James Purdy's
Much of Franzen's crankiness can be traced to technology and the misuse or abuse of technology. "I Just Called to Say I Love You" is about the rudeness of people who use their cell phones in public and insist on inflicting the most intimate details of their lives on those around them. He remarks upon the fairly recent phenomenon of these people ending every conversation with "I love you" or more often "Love you." As a fellow sufferer, I found myself nodding in agreement.
Well, I could go on. The twenty-two essays in this collection cover a very wide range of subjects but all are written with a lucidity and straightforwardness and are often autobiographical and revelatory of Franzen's private life and thoughts. I came away from them feeling that I understood the man and his writing much better. I read Freedom and enjoyed it. I think perhaps now I am ready for The Corrections. After all, Oprah liked it.
felor's review against another edition
3.0
اولین تجربه جستار خوانی من با این کتاب خیلی خوب و قشنگ بود. جستار چهارم به شدت احساسی و غمانگیز بود و کاملا میزان نزدیکی نویسنده به موضوع داستان رو نشون میداد. ترجمه اما میتوانست خیلی بهتر باشه.
ashley073's review against another edition
4.0
The thing I hate about Jonathan Franzen's essays is that they always make me want to read OTHER books. Like- the man writes about so many different books/writers that my mental "to-read" list just gets longer and longer as I make my way through his book!!
In all seriousness, this was a pretty good collection. The pieces I liked, I LOVED- the pieces I didn't like...well, they were normally pretty short and didn't get in the way too much.
Standouts:
Pain Won't Kill You
Farther Away
The Greatest Family Ever Storied
No End To It
The first three pieces were undoubtedly my favorites, but the entire book was pretty good.
The end of the book felt kind of sloppy and just...pointless. Like a lot of filler material was thrown in at the end with the shorter pieces. Our Little Planet and Our Relations were terribly boring for me and I was thrilled when I realized how short they were. Interview With New York State was frustrating as well, but quite a bit longer.
So I guess I wouldn't actually recommend the entire book, because there was a LOT of skippable material in here...but the good parts were so incredibly good that this still easily earns 4-stars from me.
I have no doubt that I'll be returning to the first two pieces time and time and time again.
In all seriousness, this was a pretty good collection. The pieces I liked, I LOVED- the pieces I didn't like...well, they were normally pretty short and didn't get in the way too much.
Standouts:
Pain Won't Kill You
Farther Away
The Greatest Family Ever Storied
No End To It
The first three pieces were undoubtedly my favorites, but the entire book was pretty good.
The end of the book felt kind of sloppy and just...pointless. Like a lot of filler material was thrown in at the end with the shorter pieces. Our Little Planet and Our Relations were terribly boring for me and I was thrilled when I realized how short they were. Interview With New York State was frustrating as well, but quite a bit longer.
So I guess I wouldn't actually recommend the entire book, because there was a LOT of skippable material in here...but the good parts were so incredibly good that this still easily earns 4-stars from me.
I have no doubt that I'll be returning to the first two pieces time and time and time again.