I'm currently reading Franzen's Corrections and thoroughly enjoying it. The writing is absolutely impeccable and he has this ability to describe even the smallest of human thoughts and actions with great clarity. In fact, this is the first literary fiction that I enjoyed because of how deeply he psychoanalyzed every character. The reviews for this book however are very divided. Tell me what you feel about it and recommend a similar book please.
Just wanting to casually discuss Franzen’s new book, Crossroads. Meant to post this before but it was obviously a busy month.
Also our next book is Joan Didion’s The White Album! We’ll discuss on Friday, January 19th.
I thought this was one of his best novels. Marion, Perry, and Russ were really vivid characters. Maybe the setting of the 70s Midwest Jesus movement won’t be for everyone, but I couldn’t get enough of it. And the plot was very gripping, the Arizona trip had me sucked in. Considering this is the beginning of a trilogy, I think this series could be what Franzen is remembered for if the next 2 books are similar quality.
I still didn’t think this was as good as The Corrections which is still one of my personal favorites of the 21st century so far. It’s hard to compare since The Corrections wasn’t part of a trilogy, but even just comparing the prose alone, I’d have to side with it. Crossroads might be more accessible for a new reader of Franzen, although really none of his works are inaccessible. Freedom I thought was fine, Purity less fine, but Crossroads was truly good.
What did everyone else think?
For all of your Franzen fans Crossroads is another memorable book written by the great author. I don't know why anyone trashes Franzen. A dysfunctional family headed by two parents who came from dysfunctional families themselves is going to have an interesting story. The characters were well developed and the dialogue did capture the zeitgeist of early 1970's Midwest suburbia.
I understand that Crossroads is the first installment of a trilogy covering the Hildebrand Family that will finish in 2020's America. I know that I must be patient, but I am already jonesing for the next two books.
I do not understand why people trash Franzen. Crossroads was well written, had great characters with very interesting back stories, the interactions of the characters touched a nerve, the family dynamics was very relatable and if you are looking for a "happily ever after" story I am sorry, but life usually doesn't go like that.
If anyone else had this book did you like it as much as I did?
It's not easy to make a living as a writer. Making it on the cover of Time magazine for a book you wrote is next to impossible. Yet, Jonathan was able to accomplish both of these, receive silver in the National Book Award, and was touted by Oprah as a literal genius. As fan of his first novel, Corrections, I had to explore the hype for myself. Somehow Freedom exceeded my expectations.
Mistakes were made. Every character in this book is deeply flawed. A common theme in Franzen's writing is the de-construction of traditional American values, as well as calling our the hypocrisy in them through the actions of his characters. The story follows the Berglund family who is the picturesque suburban family you might pick out of a magazine from the 1950's, only they're contemporary liberals. No spoiler, but let me just tell you that in this book there is nothing but tea on every page. If you're someone whose guilty pleasure is gossip, you will love this book. There is so much drama, and Franzen does an incredible job at getting to empathize with each of the characters without making their actions feel like plot devices or worse - melodramatics.
Freedom has plenty of strengths going for it. You hate and love the characters at the same time, the social commentary feels fresh and is not distracting, but what sets Freedom apart from most fiction is that the sentences are just beautiful.
The difficult part about writing is being able to translate what is in your head to the page, without sacrificing all that the book could be. In Freedom's case, it would be difficult to convince anyone that it didn't come out exactly as he intended. The dialogue is funny and authentic, the imagery is captivating, but there are a number of climaxes in the book where the execution is flawless and not a word seems out of place.
Some examples of sentences I liked:
“It’s all circling around the same problem of personal liberties,” Walter said. “People came to this country for either money or freedom. If you don’t have money, you cling to your freedoms all the more angrily. Even if smoking kills you, even if you can’t afford to feed your kids, even if your kids are getting shot down by maniacs with assault rifles. You may be poor, but the one thing nobody can take away from you is the freedom to fuck up your life whatever way you want to.”
*“I guess my life hasn’t always been happy, or easy, or exactly what I want. At a certain point, I just have to try not to think too much a
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Franzen's Crossroads character Perry with IQ off the charts has an eerie resemblance to Hal Incandenza. He often muses on the question of whether it's actually possible to be good or if there's always some self serving angle to it. Good Old neon comes to mind too. Thoughts?
I have very conflicted feelings about Jonathan Franzen. On one hand, I pre-ordered Crossroads and feel almost hungry to start reading it. I'm delighted to hear that it's 600 pages and the first of a promised trilogy. I love the way he writes about families and how people search for identity and meaning within those units (or by rejecting or redefining their roles within them). I get undeniable pleasure from his prose, and it's fun to get lost in the big, interconnected, messy worlds he creates.
But, I'm more than a little turned off by his rather retrograde depictions of women. If he describes a woman as aging or a bit overweight, you can guarantee that she'll also be pathetic and pitiable. If he describes a woman as thin and attractive, she's probably smart but somewhat cruel. These tendencies have always been there, but they got much harder to ignore in his last novel, Purity, which left me feeling genuinely degraded and disgusted by the end.
Judging by this NYT review, I've gotta gird myself for more of the same. (A choice selection from that review that has me saying "yikes": "When we first meet [Marion], she’s a frump, virtually a nonentity, an overweight pastor’s spouse, invisible except as a 'warm cloud of momminess.' Russ ... is embarrassed by Marion and 'her sorry hair, her unavailing makeup, her seemingly self-spiting choice of dress.' Marion is another of Franzen’s awkward, mortified women.")
So, what do y'all think? Are you looking forward to reading Crossroads? Do you experience the ickiness of his misogyny as hard as I do?
Jonathan Franzen has been on my radar for some time, and I would like some recommendations on which novel might be best to start with, or perhaps what might be his best piece of work?
