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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Ummmm I have no idea I just read. Was this supposed to mean something?
reflective
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
almost perfect
I guess I missed something everyone else seems to have seen in this book. I am admittedly a poor reader of satire, but I found this "masterpiece" self-indulgent and bloated, the characters loathsome.
Mr. Franzen, you've outdone yourself.
This book hurt me as I read, but at least it didn't make me as angry as The Corrections made me.
This book hurt me as I read, but at least it didn't make me as angry as The Corrections made me.
While this book as the typical family trapped in unhappiness, it's one of the only ones I've read like this where I actually genuinely cared about the majority of the characters. Even Patty, who often is also very selfish and hurtful to those around her. Ultimately the characters care about each other and this is their saving grace and kept me coming back to read more pages until midnight. I highly recommend this one.
I couldn't stay on this book. It is rare that a book beats me but this one did. I don't even know how it got published to be honest. Also, at 169 pages in I still didn't even know what the point was. No way I was going to make it all the way through.
I thought the characters were interesting and the first half of the book was quite good. Somewhere around the half way point it got a little mired down and lost me a bit. I felt the ending was too convenient and a bit of a letdown after slogging through the 2nd half of the book. In all, not bad, but it might have been better with some judicious editing.
Jonathan Franzen is one of those writers I've heard a lot about, I've even read several of his interviews, but I've never read his fiction until now. I can now say I'm a fan.
Any time I read a 500+ page book in less than a week, you know it must be good. There were several things that impressed me about FREEDOM. I loved the unusual structure as it applied to point of view: switches between close-in third person perspectives and the first person writing in a third person POV of Patty's journal entries. I think Franzen could be read simply to learn about sentence structure, of which he is clearly a master. I loved the parallel nature of his very long sentences, how they just rolled on and on but were still accessible. He definitely has a creative flair for punctuation, which I appreciated, even if I wouldn't use semi-colons and colons in quite the same ways.
Probably the most overused maxim in writing classes is "show, don't tell." But any good writer knows that you must do both, and do both well. I think Franzen is a great example of this. FREEDOM has long passages of telling, but the voice and the ways in which the telling is done are fabulous. I thought the way he dealt with some of the more complicated political and scientific topics, through summary dialogue rather that straight dialogue, was fabulous.
I was also impressed with his characters. He wrote from both genders - close-in to Walter and first person from Patty - and I felt that they were both rounded out, authentic people. The only character I was a little iffy on was Connie. I remember reading some of her dialogue close to the end of the novel and thinking, she reminds me of a Hemingway female: either passively bowing to males, or hysterical. I think part of the problem is that she is an odd duck, but unlike some of the other odd ducks (Patty) we are never close-in to her perspective, so sometimes she comes off flat rather than just odd.
The book is also great for setting, from St. Paul, Hibbings, and Grand Rapids to Washington, DC, and New York, all the settings were used so artfully. I really enjoyed them.
I also liked the bits of political and scientific discourse. I felt like Franzen used them to his advantage but did not overwhelm the story with them. I got enough that I understood, but not so much that I felt like I was reading a treatise.
Any time I read a 500+ page book in less than a week, you know it must be good. There were several things that impressed me about FREEDOM. I loved the unusual structure as it applied to point of view: switches between close-in third person perspectives and the first person writing in a third person POV of Patty's journal entries. I think Franzen could be read simply to learn about sentence structure, of which he is clearly a master. I loved the parallel nature of his very long sentences, how they just rolled on and on but were still accessible. He definitely has a creative flair for punctuation, which I appreciated, even if I wouldn't use semi-colons and colons in quite the same ways.
Probably the most overused maxim in writing classes is "show, don't tell." But any good writer knows that you must do both, and do both well. I think Franzen is a great example of this. FREEDOM has long passages of telling, but the voice and the ways in which the telling is done are fabulous. I thought the way he dealt with some of the more complicated political and scientific topics, through summary dialogue rather that straight dialogue, was fabulous.
I was also impressed with his characters. He wrote from both genders - close-in to Walter and first person from Patty - and I felt that they were both rounded out, authentic people. The only character I was a little iffy on was Connie. I remember reading some of her dialogue close to the end of the novel and thinking, she reminds me of a Hemingway female: either passively bowing to males, or hysterical. I think part of the problem is that she is an odd duck, but unlike some of the other odd ducks (Patty) we are never close-in to her perspective, so sometimes she comes off flat rather than just odd.
The book is also great for setting, from St. Paul, Hibbings, and Grand Rapids to Washington, DC, and New York, all the settings were used so artfully. I really enjoyed them.
I also liked the bits of political and scientific discourse. I felt like Franzen used them to his advantage but did not overwhelm the story with them. I got enough that I understood, but not so much that I felt like I was reading a treatise.
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like most of Franzen's books his writing is immersive, interesting, and often clever. His characters are well developed, but the women he writes never feel real; there always seems to be a sheen of misogyny in their portrayal. Or to be less accusational, he seems to have a persistent misunderstanding about the inner lives of women.
Extra half star because it instilled in me the strong conviction to keep my cats indoors. For the birds!
Extra half star because it instilled in me the strong conviction to keep my cats indoors. For the birds!
I can't believe I actually read and finished this big time adult book. This BTAB. BFD.
A few thoughts that I had while reading and cursing this book:
1. Maybe I should have found out some/any background information about this before reading it? Would that have helped me get a deeper understanding of the bullshit in this book? I'm going to shrug and say, probably not.
2. There were too many heavy handed bird metaphors. Christ, I get it. Especially at the end of the book.
3. I'll be honest (was there a doubt in your mind that I ever wouldn't be?) and say while I was upset by some things in the 'Patty chapter,' (the one that seems to be a big deal to people) it mostly faded into the background of the book for me. It wasn't until later, when another character was praising Patty's writing and in essence, the author was praising the author's own writing that I was like, oh come the fuck on. Not only did the character praise her writing but he praised his own tortured song lyrics that we got a glimpse at earlier and while I don't remember exactly what they were and I'm not about to dig it up and be accurate here I'm going to say they were something along the lines of oh body/somebody/your body and body in bodies of bodied body. Body.
This past year has just been really hard for me in pop culture/media because I'm honestly wondering who all of this stuff is made for. The people he's putting under a microscope and ultimately giving the middle finger to are the people reading the book. I mean, they get it and yet love it. I'm just baffled.
At least it made me think a minute or two. Or something. Also this review is hilarious.
A few thoughts that I had while reading and cursing this book:
1. Maybe I should have found out some/any background information about this before reading it? Would that have helped me get a deeper understanding of the bullshit in this book? I'm going to shrug and say, probably not.
2. There were too many heavy handed bird metaphors. Christ, I get it. Especially at the end of the book.
3. I'll be honest (was there a doubt in your mind that I ever wouldn't be?) and say while I was upset by some things in the 'Patty chapter,' (the one that seems to be a big deal to people) it mostly faded into the background of the book for me. It wasn't until later, when another character was praising Patty's writing and in essence, the author was praising the author's own writing that I was like, oh come the fuck on. Not only did the character praise her writing but he praised his own tortured song lyrics that we got a glimpse at earlier and while I don't remember exactly what they were and I'm not about to dig it up and be accurate here I'm going to say they were something along the lines of oh body/somebody/your body and body in bodies of bodied body. Body.
This past year has just been really hard for me in pop culture/media because I'm honestly wondering who all of this stuff is made for. The people he's putting under a microscope and ultimately giving the middle finger to are the people reading the book. I mean, they get it and yet love it. I'm just baffled.
At least it made me think a minute or two. Or something. Also this review is hilarious.