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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Don DeLillo did this sort of thing better in Underworld. That said, this was a very good book. Not sure it merits the immensity of the hype, though. Also not sure how it will hold up over time; it's very much a book of the moment.
There's no denying Jonathan Franzen is a very good writer, who writes with an acerbic intelligence that I wouldn't want trained on my own human frailties. And that’s definitely what Franzen susses out of his characters. Yes, they are unlikeable to a one, but he gets inside each and brings out all that is messy and sympathetic and 100% human about all of them. He's a delicate limner of swampy, unwholesome family dynamics and love triangles. But this is a BIG book. As it takes on the disintegration of one family in particular, it has a larger point they illustrate: how the vaunted American freedom can be poisonous, not just on a personal level, but also on a larger scale. Franzen looks at the consequences of each terrible lone choice in aggregate—the cars we drive, the pets we keep (or fail to keep), the cheap energy we consume—and the environmental costs are devastating. He deftly portrays our refusal to consider those consequences, and our indignation at the very idea that anyone dare try to impose any limits or curbs on our appetites. A family novel, a marriage novel, an environmental novel, a novel about America and who moves here to become an American: this novel is loaded for bear. Can we climb out of this hole, and learn to love and care for what we have instead of continuing the quest for more, more, more? Franzen seems not exactly optimistic, but the novel holds out some small hope at the end for a reconciliation with reality. You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.
I tried to read this book in January. Not a post-holiday, dry-Jan kind of read. This book is depressing, the characters are insufferable, the writing drones on and on in tiny print just dripping with pretension. I threw in the towel about halfway through because January is depressing enough without torturing myself any further. Take this with a grain of salt because I’m more of an Elin Hilderbrand/Reece’s book club kinda gal, but I like to read for pleasure. Sue me.
I LOVED this book! It was a little bit difficult finding a place to stop, since each “chapter” is more like a short story within an epic novel.
The book is framed by the first and last chapters, which are told from the Berglunds’ neighbors’ points of views. Everything written in between is honest, unflattering portrayals of each of the characters, told in the character’s own words.
I loved the weaving between different character’s points of views, and how the lives of Walter and Patty came full circle in the end.
If you would read the first and last chapters of the book, you wouldn’t necessarily find that either of the main characters had changed at all. But Walter and Patty had to experience a lifetime of tragedies and struggles in order to be content with each other and their place in the world.
The book is framed by the first and last chapters, which are told from the Berglunds’ neighbors’ points of views. Everything written in between is honest, unflattering portrayals of each of the characters, told in the character’s own words.
I loved the weaving between different character’s points of views, and how the lives of Walter and Patty came full circle in the end.
If you would read the first and last chapters of the book, you wouldn’t necessarily find that either of the main characters had changed at all. But Walter and Patty had to experience a lifetime of tragedies and struggles in order to be content with each other and their place in the world.
It's always difficult for me to review books like this. The writing is good. The perception of issues and character portrayal really is as good as any living writer. But if I am going to struggle through 500 pages of unlikeable characters and conflict that is almost too real, I would really like some plot, please.
I devoured this book. Nobody writes family/relationships like Franzen. And not in a cookie-cutter quotable barely-hidden-memoir kind of way, but in a way that is true to the story and the demands of fiction as well as to the larger world.
I thought this book was pretty boring. I kept reading thinking I would come to the "good" part since it had such good reviews...I never did. And by the time I realized there was no "good" part I was 400 pages in, might as well finish it. It was OK but not my cup of tea. Seemed like it was trying to hard to make a statement. Definitely not my favorite.
Lyrical, nuanced, present, and prescient. This novel is among the best I have ever read. This book may be somewhat autobiographical for Franzen but it certainly felt that way for me: a former Minnesotan of Scandinavian descent, living on the East Coast my entire adult life, including the last several years with an East Coast-bred Jew with a complicated relationship with money, his family, and their politics. On its face, such a novel may seem contrite but this was anything but. I found myself crying on the last page by the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the entire story. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Let's just say I had a stormy affair with this book. It started off very chummy and engrossed and then around the midpoint (when despicable Joey's close-up continued too long), I started to get irritated by it, particularly by its lengthy nature, overly detailed/abundant backstories, unlovable temperment...and by the fucking birds! Now, I consider myself a environmentally-conscious person and even a "nature-lover"--or at least someone who wants to conserve a lot of nature to love for a very long time--but the diatribes about the Cerulean Warbler et al really bogged the book down at a place where it needed to plow (pun intended) ahead without reserve. So after (thoroughly) skimming probably close to a hundred pages, I got drawn into the (finally) concluding stories of these very flawed humans. And it had a "happy" (and amusing) ending, which if you make it through the whole book without giving up on it, you rightly deserve.
Of course, as the critics have said, it is impressive in its scope and depth but I still couldn't help cursing out the editor for not editing enough.
Of course, as the critics have said, it is impressive in its scope and depth but I still couldn't help cursing out the editor for not editing enough.
I didn't...love this book. I'm probably the only person in America who doesn't but I found the story boring, the characters not worth caring about (good or bad), and the plot developments not all that surprising.