The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

Title: The Corrections   Author: Jonathan Franzen
Pages: 566
Summary: A comic, tragic epic stretching from the Midwest of the midcentury to the Wall street and Eastern Europe of today, The Corrections brings an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental health care, and globalized greed.
After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on bringing the family together for one last Christmas at home.

Rating: ********8stars/**********10stars

First Sentence: The madness of an autumn prairie cold front coming through.
Last Sentence: Mouse over --->She was seventy-five and she was going to make some changes in her life.
Random Passage: "Surveillance is not a hobby," he said.
"Dad, yes it is! Mom was the one who suggested it. She said I could start in the kitchen."
It seemed to Gary another Warning Sign of depression that his thought was : The liquor cabinet is in the kitchen."

Writing Style/Character Development: Jonathan Franzen has a very straight forward, brutally honest, yet hilarious writing style. Even amid all the chaos, drama, sadness, and fighting, there is a hint of humor in his writing. I honestly think that Franzen is one of the greatest modern writers we have, and is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Much like in Freedom, in The Corrections, his strongest talent is character development, and you come to get to know each character extremely well. This cast of characters was more likable than the ones in Freedom for me, and I grew quite attached to some of them, including Alfred, the groups father who falls further into his dementia as the book progresses. Once again though, Franzen's characters are complex, and each comes with their own flaws. Some are harder to look past than others, and oftentimes you may not like one or more of the characters he created. The character of Enid, for me, was particularly hard to like, along with Gary. But I think this is one of the authors strong points, making believable characters, and I particularly like the fact that he doesn't always take the easy route of making beloved people that you are going to love throughout the novel. I think it's a case for a strong writer that he can keep you intrigued without making every character instantly likable.

Story-line: At times the story is a little bogged down with scientific descriptions that can be a little hard to drudge through if you are not particularly scientific and may have almost failed science in high school, like me. I'm not really sure if the description of the drug is really needed for the story line or just thrown in there for added effect, because to be honest, the pages containing the stock holders meeting for Corecktall went a little over my head. I got the general gist of it though, and honestly liked that Franzen didn't dumb down his novel for the benefit of his readers, even if it did mean that I felt rather dense at times. For all I know he made it up. Anyway, I felt the rest of the story was captivating, and while the ending made me a little depressed, I never fault a book for evoking an emotional response. The part of the plot concerning Parkinson's disease was a little hard for me to read for personal reasons, but I feel Franzen did a excellent job of describing the general decline of Alfred's mind. The ending was tragic, but perfect. I won't say anymore than that so as not to give anything away.

Overall: Another great novel from Franzen, and as I said before, he is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I think he has a strong voice for modern family, relationships, and the current state of the country, and that in future generations, readers will be able to look back at books like The Corrections and Freedom and understand how this generation lived much as we read authors like John Steinbeck or Mark Twain. Franzen is an author who doesn't hold back, doesn't gloss over, and doesn't talk down to readers, and I think that's why he has such a love/hate relationship with readers. Some people read books to escape life, but for those that read books to understand life, or see a different side of life, he is a wonderful author to try out, and hopefully, fall in love with.


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xoxo, Jennifyr