A review by lastpaige111
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

4.0

Tour de force that is brilliant literary fiction. Were I teaching it, there would be plenty of passages to unpack and multiple approaches would be appropriate. I see why quasi-feminists of the chick-lit variety are offended that critics salivate over Franzen, but they should stop--it's unattractive and reminds me of the old joke: Guy enters feminist bookstore and asks, "Where's the humor section?" Clerk frowns and answers with hostility, "There isn't one." Franzen has a wry dark sense of humor and his work displays a profound commitment to exposing the ugly underbelly--and sometimes just the plain old belly in which so much goes undigested--of not just American but also in some part global life (or would that be multiple levels of survival?). The text is a testament to the axiom: "If you're not outraged, you can't be paying attention." Yet, outrage with a pleasurable consumption of words tantalizes ... whether it subverts a society based on consumption is another question, but a literary question that would be so much fun to explore at greater length.