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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
i think about 40% of this book is really good and the rest is somewhere between boring but readable and eyewateringly bad.
its a great character novel! all members of the lambert family are well realised and distinct and memorable! i just can't stand about 4/5 of them.
chip's plot reads like franzen got halfway thru his soft rewrite of disgrace and then said uh AND THEN HE GOES TO LITHUANIA HAHA
gary was never likeable. starts a shit ends a shit. snooze.
denise has my heart. top lambert child. tbh i might have been happier if her section was just a novella on its own.
alfred has some of my absolute least fav moments not just in this book but maybe in literature on the whole but also made me cry at the end so im actually kind of the fence with him.
enid won me over by the end she's real af.
its a great character novel! all members of the lambert family are well realised and distinct and memorable! i just can't stand about 4/5 of them.
chip's plot reads like franzen got halfway thru his soft rewrite of disgrace and then said uh AND THEN HE GOES TO LITHUANIA HAHA
gary was never likeable. starts a shit ends a shit. snooze.
denise has my heart. top lambert child. tbh i might have been happier if her section was just a novella on its own.
alfred has some of my absolute least fav moments not just in this book but maybe in literature on the whole but also made me cry at the end so im actually kind of the fence with him.
enid won me over by the end she's real af.
Absolutely amazing. I loved the entire ride, each character, and all the weird and gross beautifully wed with introspection and excellent writing. This was my first Franzen book, and I'm excited to read more.
It may seem like this is a bad review, but that is only halfway the case. There were several aspects of this book that I disliked intensely, where I rolled my eyes and scoffed in the way of someone who has never written a book and still has a lot to say on the subject, but I enjoyed it despite myself. Franzen is simply a good writer, with a knack for prose and conflict that carries the plot on its shoulders.
It appears to be an attempt at literary fiction that fall short. It has all the right ingredients—adultery, parental strife, weird descriptions of sex. The end result was a somewhat farcical book in which every character is despicable and so unpleasant that even in reading the book you must put mental distance between yourself and them to continue—right up until the very end, when all of a sudden all of the children are dutifully caring for their aging parents at their childhood home, almost happy about it, despite being absolutely awful to them earlier in the book. Maybe it’s just me, but I think the typical course of events is for family dynamics to worsen when everyone is in the same room. Being rude to your parents over the phone hones a kind of attitude that’s been bubbling underneath a more civil exterior, and presages being awful to them in a home setting, when there are infinitely more opportunities for passive aggression, snark, and criticism. Franszen felt close to that kind of ratcheting up of pressure and then made things happy go lucky just in time for everyone to feel sorry for their behavior.
I was also throughly confused by the role of Chip. He is pivotal at the beginning of the book, and then disappears to Lithuania. The next time we see him, Lithuania is imploding in civil war. He returns to St. Jude to care for his father without any character development whatsoever. A self-obsessed, annoying asshole in New York City is also a self-obsessed, annoying asshole in Lithuania and I didn’t see any evidence that the same Chip who skipped out on an important lunch with his parents would magically become their main caretaker upon his return from his Lithuanian financial fraud scheme. Franzen just expects us to take this leap of faith—which I might have done, had I just been able to buy into the "Chip brand" a little more. But I couldn’t, due to him being a self-obsessed, annoying asshole.
Enid and Albert are the real guts of the story. Their relationship is nuanced, interesting, and loving in a fascinating way that also feels very real. I thought both of them were well-developed and had enough conflict between them to drive the entire novel. The chance to read about their lives made reading about their children’s lives bearable.
This is a weird, angry book—and yet still, somehow, a good one. I want to reiterate that this is only a halfway bad review. I think this is a flawed novel, but I can’t deny that I still enjoyed myself. It was, in fact, a little addicting to read the inane drama play out on the page. And in the end, isn’t enjoying oneself the whole point of reading anything?
It appears to be an attempt at literary fiction that fall short. It has all the right ingredients—adultery, parental strife, weird descriptions of sex. The end result was a somewhat farcical book in which every character is despicable and so unpleasant that even in reading the book you must put mental distance between yourself and them to continue—right up until the very end, when all of a sudden all of the children are dutifully caring for their aging parents at their childhood home, almost happy about it, despite being absolutely awful to them earlier in the book. Maybe it’s just me, but I think the typical course of events is for family dynamics to worsen when everyone is in the same room. Being rude to your parents over the phone hones a kind of attitude that’s been bubbling underneath a more civil exterior, and presages being awful to them in a home setting, when there are infinitely more opportunities for passive aggression, snark, and criticism. Franszen felt close to that kind of ratcheting up of pressure and then made things happy go lucky just in time for everyone to feel sorry for their behavior.
I was also throughly confused by the role of Chip. He is pivotal at the beginning of the book, and then disappears to Lithuania. The next time we see him, Lithuania is imploding in civil war. He returns to St. Jude to care for his father without any character development whatsoever. A self-obsessed, annoying asshole in New York City is also a self-obsessed, annoying asshole in Lithuania and I didn’t see any evidence that the same Chip who skipped out on an important lunch with his parents would magically become their main caretaker upon his return from his Lithuanian financial fraud scheme. Franzen just expects us to take this leap of faith—which I might have done, had I just been able to buy into the "Chip brand" a little more. But I couldn’t, due to him being a self-obsessed, annoying asshole.
Enid and Albert are the real guts of the story. Their relationship is nuanced, interesting, and loving in a fascinating way that also feels very real. I thought both of them were well-developed and had enough conflict between them to drive the entire novel. The chance to read about their lives made reading about their children’s lives bearable.
This is a weird, angry book—and yet still, somehow, a good one. I want to reiterate that this is only a halfway bad review. I think this is a flawed novel, but I can’t deny that I still enjoyed myself. It was, in fact, a little addicting to read the inane drama play out on the page. And in the end, isn’t enjoying oneself the whole point of reading anything?
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Painfully enjoyable - far too close to the bone in so many respects! The No pain, no gain principle certainly applies here!
The thing about so many of Joyce Cary's novels, is that the narrators are so unreliable and the characters are so unsympathetic. At least they are so till the climax, when a sort of unhinged humanity is set loose. (I'm thinking specifically of Mr. Johnson and Charlie Is My Darling.)
The issue with Franzen's dark view of humanity in The Corrections is that there is not a single sympathetic character among the many populating the narrative. And the implausibility factor is very high.
Not recommended at all.
The issue with Franzen's dark view of humanity in The Corrections is that there is not a single sympathetic character among the many populating the narrative. And the implausibility factor is very high.
Not recommended at all.
I hated this book, but I'm giving it three stars because I hated it for being too captivating.
Similar to "Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas," with "The Corrections" you're either forced to identify with pretty much utterly contemptible and pathetic characters, or else to plod through a book you aren't engaged with.
I chose to engage with these characters, and as a result I was horribly depressed, totally unpleasant to be around, and generally miserable for the entire time I was reading this book.
So I hated this book, but it was incredibly well done, even if the end result was a pretty exhausting and repellent experience. Way to go Jon Franzen -- probably a good thing you wouldn't let Oprah put her book club seal on this one, we'd have had suicidal housewives all across the country....
Similar to "Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas," with "The Corrections" you're either forced to identify with pretty much utterly contemptible and pathetic characters, or else to plod through a book you aren't engaged with.
I chose to engage with these characters, and as a result I was horribly depressed, totally unpleasant to be around, and generally miserable for the entire time I was reading this book.
So I hated this book, but it was incredibly well done, even if the end result was a pretty exhausting and repellent experience. Way to go Jon Franzen -- probably a good thing you wouldn't let Oprah put her book club seal on this one, we'd have had suicidal housewives all across the country....
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Franzen is an amazing writer. I really give this 4.5 stars because even though I loved it I think his more recent book Freedom was even better. I will continue to read anything he writes!
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes