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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
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
I get the praise, but also the prose felt relentless around page 400. While the Lamberts are expertly created, all the supporting characters were too on the nose, and the Lithuania sub-plot exceeded Franzen's reach.
If all happy families are alike, it would seem from The Corrections that each unhappy family is unhappy in the same way too. Certainly, the contusion of events as an elderly couple prepare for the inevitable makes painful if recognisable reading for anyone contemplating what to do for the best to support a parent or other relative with the depredations of old age. It’s one of those rare occasions when publisher hyperbole is justified, and as Laurence Phelan notes, a joy of this book is that it’s both profound and easy on the brain: “for anyone who has ever found themselves guiltily yearning for Anne Tyler while in the middle of an Updike or a Wolfe.” Although Franzen notes that “the intelligent [are] doomed to be tormented by the stupid,” that’s perhaps a forgivable solecism.
dark
emotional
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
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Franzen's depiction of a midwestern family full of unlikable, yet deeply relatable, characters has the same bleakly comic vibes as Fargo or A Serious Man, Cohen Brothers cinematic joints about midwestern families full of unlikable, yet deeply relatable characters. If you want to read 600 pages of that, read this. If you are simply satisfied to yell that you did not order Santana's Abraxas, hang up the phone. Arguably the best Franzen will ever do; you can tell he tried to summon lightning again with Crossroads but, well, he's not the Cohen Brothers. What else can I tell you.
This book is a devastatingly accurate portrayal of dysfunctional family. If you don't see yourself or anyone you know in it, you are blessed! At times painful to read, at times funny.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Enjoyed this even though it's quite long. Quite like Frantzen's style, the way the story is told out of many characters' perspectives. Might check out some of his other books.