Reviews

Diszkomfortzóna by Jonathan Franzen

hnsgtbrd's review against another edition

5.0

extremely funny, including the honesty about adolescence and divorce.

ashleycovelli's review against another edition

3.0

This book had a lot of sections that I enjoyed and also several that didn't hold my attention as well.

elliebell's review against another edition

4.0

Jonathan Franzen, of the critically acclaimed The Corrections, is very, very smart, and his keen intelligence blazes through his writing (so does his self-satisfaction, but that’s another story!) He has an acerbic eye, which he unsparingly turns on himself as well as others in this insightful memoir collection. Along the way he considers such topics such as bird watching, Peanuts & learning languages, to name a few, and I enjoyed his self-reflections and musings.

denimclature's review against another edition

3.0

As memoirs go, this was fine (and short), but not exactly revelatory. There were some amusing vignettes to help turn the pages, but Franzen's disjointed style, combined with his distracting affectation of referring to all of his childhood/high school friends - male and female - by their last names (would you refer to the girl you had a long-standing, but unconsummated, love for as "Siebert"?) and the occasional ludicrous bit of writerliness ("girls with wavy album- art hair and personalities that were sweet the way bruises on a peach are sweet" - what does that even mean?), conspire to make this not the most recommendable book I've ever read.

alissawilkinson's review against another edition

4.0

Franzen has the rare gift of being able to see the ridiculous in everyone, including himself, which saves him from mere cynicism. Great stuff (and funny).

heloise_xcu's review against another edition

2.0

Typical boring self absorbed modern male author. Yawn.

feverishriver78's review against another edition

3.0

Fantastic context for the inspirations behind Freedom and Crossroads. Difficult to digest in audiobook form, the memoir finally finds its rhythm when Franzen loses his self-consciousness and dives into his personal interests in the German language, in birds, in Peanuts. At its best, the memoir is intimately personal and startlingly honest.

In context of the fiction to come, I’m reminded of Chekhov’s saying that “most stories start on page 3.” Often, this memoir feels like a necessary throat-clearing (or record-setting) ahead of the novels to come (birthed from the same anecdotes).

audreysdance's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

samchagollan's review against another edition

4.0

Since I loved "The Corrections" so much, I couldn't wait to read more of Franzen. Although it rambled a bit at times, I really love his writing style and it was great to read about the family dysfunction that inspired his works. Could have done without the detailed bird-watching stuff at the end, but overall, I loved it.

pkrikau's review against another edition

4.0

I love Franzen's craft with sentences. It is clear he does not write casually and that sentences are worked and worked until he is satisfied. Of course, I can't KNOW that, but when a sentence makes me read it over and over again until I have truly thought about the meaning and the artfulness of its phrasing and its evocative qualities...well, I just sit (sometimes I'm standing, but very rarely) amazed. Franzen did this in the Corrections repeatedly and he does it to a lesser extent in this biography. I have to be clear, Franzen has not led an exciting life. This book is proof that well-crafted writing can make anything enjoyable. I could give a crap about bird watching, yet Franzen made his hobby interesting and borderline compelling. I have no new desire to bird watch, but I feel like I understand Franzen better. To me, that is the sign of a good writer. This is the second book I have read by him and I have to say he is as good as his accolades and that, I find, is rare company (Eugenides, Perlman, Chabon, and Franzen). As a side note, it occurs to me that I have no favorite living female writers and that is because I have not made an effort to seek out female literature writers. I will be rectifying this in the near future.