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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
So, I don't think I finished every essay in this collection. I didn't finish the one on Edith Wharton, I didn't finish one of the longer essays about traveling through exotic countries looking for birds. (There are a lot of essays about traveling through exotic countries looking for birds.)
The writing in this book is excellent. Franzen knows how to put together essays. But the content wasn't always for me. I love birds, but not a whole book of essays about birding.
I did appreciate Franzen's moral questioning about how to make a difference in the world. He struggles with the same questions I sometimes do. Is it better to work toward solving the biggest problems, even though my own contribution is hardly noticeable? Or is it better to solve the problems we can actually solve completely now, and see our progress? The answer, of course, is that both are important, but sometimes one jumps to the front.
I had some issues with Franzen's affluence. He seems to have issues with it too, which helps, but I still struggled with his passionate talk about climate change mixed in with travelogue after travelogue. I don't know, I'm a judgey-pants, what can I say?
The writing in this book is excellent. Franzen knows how to put together essays. But the content wasn't always for me. I love birds, but not a whole book of essays about birding.
I did appreciate Franzen's moral questioning about how to make a difference in the world. He struggles with the same questions I sometimes do. Is it better to work toward solving the biggest problems, even though my own contribution is hardly noticeable? Or is it better to solve the problems we can actually solve completely now, and see our progress? The answer, of course, is that both are important, but sometimes one jumps to the front.
I had some issues with Franzen's affluence. He seems to have issues with it too, which helps, but I still struggled with his passionate talk about climate change mixed in with travelogue after travelogue. I don't know, I'm a judgey-pants, what can I say?
DNF p122
Na de eerste paar essays braaf gelezen te hebben, ging ik steeds meer stukken overslaan, omdat ik het echt niet interessant vond. Ik had er meer van verwacht. Uiteindelijk ben ik toch maar gestopt, want ik lees liever een boek waar ik wel van kan genieten. Ik houd van vogels, maar ik kan geen zin meer lezen over het tellen of ‘verzamelen’ van vogels. Dit werd me echt veel te saai.
Na de eerste paar essays braaf gelezen te hebben, ging ik steeds meer stukken overslaan, omdat ik het echt niet interessant vond. Ik had er meer van verwacht. Uiteindelijk ben ik toch maar gestopt, want ik lees liever een boek waar ik wel van kan genieten. Ik houd van vogels, maar ik kan geen zin meer lezen over het tellen of ‘verzamelen’ van vogels. Dit werd me echt veel te saai.
This was a funish book. I lived near Santa Cruz starting in middle school and some time in high school I met the author for a pre signing for this second book freedom. I never finished that book there were to many sex scenes for my taste i was rather surprised my parents took me to see him. I said I would keep up with him and sadly haven’t, I saw this book came out and haven’t recently fallen back in love with essays so checked this book out. It’s a lot more about birds than I personally would have hoped for, my dad is a wildlife photographer and I have somewhat bad experiences waiting around for birds. I loved his imagery though and it was a great way at looking at how despite global warming being a threat humans pose a bigger danger to nature in so many other ways.
I enjoyed this collection quite a bit, and the subject matter (climate change) is up my alley. Franzen made me think with his argument about paying more attention to the issues close to home versus global problems, and I didn’t agree with him 100% of the time, but some of the ideas will really stay with me.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
A lot of the previous reviews hit the nail on the head with this one. The rather disjointed compilation of essays mostly deals with birds, climate change, habitat loss, and the combined effects of the above. As someone fully sympathetic and engaged in all of these topics, I was expecting great things, even based on looking through some of the previous readers reviews. I agreed with a lot from the author and loved the tidbits about helping locally even if the fight globally seems to be too much at times. These moments, however, were fleeting and couldn't do enough to save the times where I was put off or, at best disinterested in the writing. I know that the author really cares, but I felt condescension throughout the essays and I pushed through hoping for something that would tie it all together into a grand lesson in the end. It never showed up. Ultimately, I am somewhere between a 1 and 2 stars on this. I did finish the book, but I will not read it again.
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
85: The End of the End of the Earth by Jonathan Franzen
I have loved all of Franzen’s novels that I have read—The Corrections, Purity, Freedom—so was certainly intrigued to come across this 2018 collection of essays by him, despite some reviews indicating that Franzen’s essay writing is not Franzen’s fiction writing.
While I do not fully disagree with those reviews, I did overall enjoy reading this of Franzen’s writing also.
Granted, bird lovers and bird watchers are likely to enjoy and appreciate this collection far more than I—moreso a liker of birds; but I never mind learning things. And I did learn the names of a number of new-to-me birds and bird news by reading…but I have no trips to Antarctica—and especially not with Lindblad—any time soon. That actually brings up an aspect of Franzen’s essays with which I did take issue overall—just the great amount of privilege presented in some…and that all just so far removed from where my head and heart have for months now been.
But the essays were not all about birds and birdwatching either.
There were additional and interesting pieces about climate change and reading and friendship…and even about essays themselves as a form and the decline in the valuing and writing of them (hmpf! I had honestly just decided that maybe I have essays inside of me more than novels!). And I did especially enjoy a brief list of a piece called “Ten Rules for the Novelist.”
And even the essays that were heavier on nature and birding and such than my usual arenas contained profound ideas and made interesting statements. I considered at length things like: “The animals may not be able to thank us for allowing them to live, and they certainly wouldn’t do the same thing for us if our positions were reversed. But it’s we, not they, who need life to have meaning” (66).
And in one essay he writes about Sherry Turkle, who has written a couple of books about technology, including Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation, both of which sound interesting, given Franzen’s references. I think she has nailed important things as Franzen presents one of her arguments in the latter: “The people she interviews have adopted new technologies in pursuit of greater control, only to feel controlled by them” (70), certainly an idea conveyed darkly in this year’s The Social Dilemma, a popular and disturbing Netflix documentary.
Franzen adds that Turkle’s “likably idealized selves that they’ve created with social media leave their real selves all the more isolated. They communicate incessantly but are afraid of face-to-face conversations; they worry, often nostalgically, that they’re missing out on something fundamental” (70).
All of this written—both by Turkle and then Franzen about Turkle—pre-2020, pre-COVID, pre-virtual/online education and interaction and everything going on now. So I’ll have to do a little more research to see what Turkle is now saying about all of that.
She does say, according to Franzen, that she “believes that regular family conversations help “inoculate” children against bullying” (71)…ultimately arguing that empathy can only begin when one is forced to recognize a person’s full human reality, which happens only when one speaks to another in person. I am thinking that there are virtual substitutions for this…and gains to be made from reading more as well!
With all of that said, I think many will enjoy reading this collection of essays, especially if they a) like Franzen and/or b) are willing to listen and learn new things and ideas when reading and consider other perspectives than their own.
I have loved all of Franzen’s novels that I have read—The Corrections, Purity, Freedom—so was certainly intrigued to come across this 2018 collection of essays by him, despite some reviews indicating that Franzen’s essay writing is not Franzen’s fiction writing.
While I do not fully disagree with those reviews, I did overall enjoy reading this of Franzen’s writing also.
Granted, bird lovers and bird watchers are likely to enjoy and appreciate this collection far more than I—moreso a liker of birds; but I never mind learning things. And I did learn the names of a number of new-to-me birds and bird news by reading…but I have no trips to Antarctica—and especially not with Lindblad—any time soon. That actually brings up an aspect of Franzen’s essays with which I did take issue overall—just the great amount of privilege presented in some…and that all just so far removed from where my head and heart have for months now been.
But the essays were not all about birds and birdwatching either.
There were additional and interesting pieces about climate change and reading and friendship…and even about essays themselves as a form and the decline in the valuing and writing of them (hmpf! I had honestly just decided that maybe I have essays inside of me more than novels!). And I did especially enjoy a brief list of a piece called “Ten Rules for the Novelist.”
And even the essays that were heavier on nature and birding and such than my usual arenas contained profound ideas and made interesting statements. I considered at length things like: “The animals may not be able to thank us for allowing them to live, and they certainly wouldn’t do the same thing for us if our positions were reversed. But it’s we, not they, who need life to have meaning” (66).
And in one essay he writes about Sherry Turkle, who has written a couple of books about technology, including Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation, both of which sound interesting, given Franzen’s references. I think she has nailed important things as Franzen presents one of her arguments in the latter: “The people she interviews have adopted new technologies in pursuit of greater control, only to feel controlled by them” (70), certainly an idea conveyed darkly in this year’s The Social Dilemma, a popular and disturbing Netflix documentary.
Franzen adds that Turkle’s “likably idealized selves that they’ve created with social media leave their real selves all the more isolated. They communicate incessantly but are afraid of face-to-face conversations; they worry, often nostalgically, that they’re missing out on something fundamental” (70).
All of this written—both by Turkle and then Franzen about Turkle—pre-2020, pre-COVID, pre-virtual/online education and interaction and everything going on now. So I’ll have to do a little more research to see what Turkle is now saying about all of that.
She does say, according to Franzen, that she “believes that regular family conversations help “inoculate” children against bullying” (71)…ultimately arguing that empathy can only begin when one is forced to recognize a person’s full human reality, which happens only when one speaks to another in person. I am thinking that there are virtual substitutions for this…and gains to be made from reading more as well!
With all of that said, I think many will enjoy reading this collection of essays, especially if they a) like Franzen and/or b) are willing to listen and learn new things and ideas when reading and consider other perspectives than their own.
Due to my total disinterest in Ornithology, I found this book boring even if I usually love Franzen also when he doesn't write fiction. There a couple of essay that I liked a lot but Italians killing birds in Albany are not to my liking. I loved the story of the South Pole journey and the one about Edith Wharton, all the rest are debatable.
Forse per via del mio totale disinteresse nei confronti dell'ornitologia, ho trovato questo libro piuttosto noioso, anche se di solito Franzen mi piace molto, anche quando non scrive romanzi. Ci sono un paio di saggi particolarmente belli ma tendenzialmente poco mi interessa dei cacciatori di frodo italiani in Albania. La storia del viaggio al Polo Sud ed il saggio su Edith Wharton mi sono piaciuti tanto, ma il resto é aperto a varie interpretazioni.
Forse per via del mio totale disinteresse nei confronti dell'ornitologia, ho trovato questo libro piuttosto noioso, anche se di solito Franzen mi piace molto, anche quando non scrive romanzi. Ci sono un paio di saggi particolarmente belli ma tendenzialmente poco mi interessa dei cacciatori di frodo italiani in Albania. La storia del viaggio al Polo Sud ed il saggio su Edith Wharton mi sono piaciuti tanto, ma il resto é aperto a varie interpretazioni.