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titus_hjelm 's review for:
Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen
I’ve been contemplating writing a non-fiction book about the follies of the middle class (plenty of autobiographical material included) for a while. The paradox of freedom of choice and still ending up living lives dictated by expectations—imagined and real—is just so fascinating.
I don’t need to anymore. Jonathan Franzen says it all in Freedom.
Despite the hype (which usually puts me off instead of getting me interested), this book is just what the praise on the cover says it is. It’s also the best book I’ve read this year and possibly in the top five ever. Eminently readable with no pretensions to ’literariness’, but still literary, challenging and so spot on with the observations of middle class lives. Very American, yes, but mostly so in the emphasis on Freudian child-parent relationships as a foundation for the rest of our lives rather than in the particularities of middle class life. Perhaps the middle class all over the world has been Americanized? In any case, Franzen is by far the keenest observer of the paradox I’ve ever read. Funny and sad, the book gives you laughs and brought a lump in my throat several times when the observations cut too close to my own life. I couldn’t recommend this too much. Read it!
I don’t need to anymore. Jonathan Franzen says it all in Freedom.
Despite the hype (which usually puts me off instead of getting me interested), this book is just what the praise on the cover says it is. It’s also the best book I’ve read this year and possibly in the top five ever. Eminently readable with no pretensions to ’literariness’, but still literary, challenging and so spot on with the observations of middle class lives. Very American, yes, but mostly so in the emphasis on Freudian child-parent relationships as a foundation for the rest of our lives rather than in the particularities of middle class life. Perhaps the middle class all over the world has been Americanized? In any case, Franzen is by far the keenest observer of the paradox I’ve ever read. Funny and sad, the book gives you laughs and brought a lump in my throat several times when the observations cut too close to my own life. I couldn’t recommend this too much. Read it!