Scan barcode
A review by bhnmt61
Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
4.0
Notes on re-reading at the end.
Original review: My cousin and I decided to tackle this book together. I'm glad I read it that way, because if I'd read it by myself, I never would have made it past the first fifty pages. Franzen brilliantly dissects the lives of a midwestern family. The parents, still living in the Midwest, are dealing with his Alzheimer's and her severe case of Midwest blinders. Their grown children are living on the East coast, and each of their lives is falling apart in a different way. Gary, the oldest, is married to the scarily insidious Caroline. The section devoted to them is a direct, and better written, antecedent of Gone Girl. Chip, the middle child, is failing miserably and pathetically at academia, writing, relationships, and everything else he tries. He ends up in Lithuania creating a website to defraud American investors, an amusing sendup of the internet and the gullibility spawned by greed. Denise, the youngest, is a top chef at a new restaurant in Philly, hopelessly smitten with a married friend. Franzen's writing is usually brilliant, although occasionally he flips into info-dump for pages at a time--surprising in a writer of his stature, and the main reason I give this one four stars instead of five. Laugh out loud funny, with characters you start out hating and grow to love. Also has the most vivid depiction of Alzheimer's I've read anywhere. Great book.
2021 re-read: I can still admire Franzen’s ability to spin a story, and to indulge in lavish displays of knowledge and vocabulary, but I enjoyed this much less on a second reading. It seemed much more mean-spirited than it did seven years ago. I think probably because seven years ago, I still identified with the three Lambert siblings. In 2021, newly arrived in my sixties and with adult children of my own, I clearly have more in common with Al and Enid than with their children, and Franzen is not kind to the elder Lamberts.
Original review: My cousin and I decided to tackle this book together. I'm glad I read it that way, because if I'd read it by myself, I never would have made it past the first fifty pages. Franzen brilliantly dissects the lives of a midwestern family. The parents, still living in the Midwest, are dealing with his Alzheimer's and her severe case of Midwest blinders. Their grown children are living on the East coast, and each of their lives is falling apart in a different way. Gary, the oldest, is married to the scarily insidious Caroline. The section devoted to them is a direct, and better written, antecedent of Gone Girl. Chip, the middle child, is failing miserably and pathetically at academia, writing, relationships, and everything else he tries. He ends up in Lithuania creating a website to defraud American investors, an amusing sendup of the internet and the gullibility spawned by greed. Denise, the youngest, is a top chef at a new restaurant in Philly, hopelessly smitten with a married friend. Franzen's writing is usually brilliant, although occasionally he flips into info-dump for pages at a time--surprising in a writer of his stature, and the main reason I give this one four stars instead of five. Laugh out loud funny, with characters you start out hating and grow to love. Also has the most vivid depiction of Alzheimer's I've read anywhere. Great book.
2021 re-read: I can still admire Franzen’s ability to spin a story, and to indulge in lavish displays of knowledge and vocabulary, but I enjoyed this much less on a second reading. It seemed much more mean-spirited than it did seven years ago. I think probably because seven years ago, I still identified with the three Lambert siblings. In 2021, newly arrived in my sixties and with adult children of my own, I clearly have more in common with Al and Enid than with their children, and Franzen is not kind to the elder Lamberts.