Reviews
Still not sure what to think about this one -- I've never read a book entirely with unlikable characters. I've also never known gotten to observe such a liberal American culture from the inside, so that was kinda interesting. Although Freedom was perhaps not the most fun read, and I'm still a little hazy as to what the author was trying to accomplish here, I find Freedom to be a memorable book, and I'm quite sure why that is. But, I think it deserves some credit for it.
I said to a friend - on goodreads, as it happens - that I can't remember one thing that happened in another of Franzen's tomes - The Corrections. He, the friend, rather astutely pointed out to me that Franzen writes books and people that are instantly forgettable. Do you know, he really does too! It's not that I didn't enjoy Freedom, because I did for the most part, but everything and everyone in it was (a) pretty unlikeable and (b) pretty forgettable. Indeed, I've all but forgotten about it all already. Apart from this: is there anything worse than writing just for the sake of it? That's what Franzen has done here, I'm sure of it. So disheartened I was when I realised that I knew all I needed and wanted to know about Freedom's characters that when I saw I still had a quarter of the book to go, I had to give it up for a good week before finishing it. (Indeed, I'm surprised I returned to it at all.) That's just self-indulgent authorship, if you ask me.
Franzen did an amazing job constructing these characters and dedicating perspective to each. But the second half of the book becomes bogged down in characters engaging in political exposition in a way that becomes self-indulgent. Like, we get it, Jonathan - you prefer birds to people. Overall, some of the characterization of the women does strike me as a little mean-spirited and the animalistic desires he argues for his male characters are a little broad-brush. But I'd still recommend this as a time capsule for the political temperature of the aughts and an entertaining tour of what various upper middle-class people were involved in.
Interesting. Good attempt at trying to bridge a gap between how we lived our familial lives years ago and how we live them now. I felt it was like a modern "Easter Parade" or "Revolutionary Road." Clearly, comparing it to Yates does not make it a bad read, but I feel like there was a bigger meaning to each character which so perfectly exemplified one idea that didn't quite come together at the end. Now, to read "The Corrections"...
A whirlwind of emotions. The book spans a long period of time, and a long list of settings, as well of a long list of themes.
"L'indugio era tollerabile, se la gratificazione era assicurata." Grazie Jonathan Franzen.
An epic tale that takes each character and turns them around on a roatating platform while we get a look at them through the eyes of multiple points of view. After getting this thorough look even then we have to admit we might not completely know or understand the characters. You may not "like" Franzen's assembly of subjects - but you will certainly know their flaws and forgive them for a few of their despicable actions. The price of freedom is indeed high. And the challenge of trying to figure out how to live in these complex times can produce some less than desirable character traits. The end feels like Franzen is off on a sequel - but one where Walter is determined to keep “cats” instead of Katz from roaming around and destroying his tranquil world.
I thought this was soap operatic, terribly telling (vs. showing), over-historic (lots of "his uncle's grandmother's dog had done X, leading via some long-winded and mostly tangential set of circumstances to some outcome that caused Y"), very contrived, and not at all deft. I expected something heavy on style and got something heavy on cumbersome setup of plot connections that frankly weren't all that interesting. It read to me like a middle draft of something in need of much condensing and rewriting for style. There are literary gestures, but I've panned other books (e.g. Joe Meno's The Great Perhaps) that are rough but whose literary gestures are better). This is not what I expected from the guy being billed as the savior of American literature.
I think it was the Miami Herald that called this book "devastatingly insightful," and I can think of no phrase more appropriate. I spent weeks with this book, deliberately taking a couple days off at a time from reading it, because I didn't want it to end. That, as it turns out, is a very difficult thing to do, because it's so damn hard to put down. It's been called the Great American Novel, and while I can't quite disagree, I think the book resists any and all labels. It's the story of suburbia, true, but its beauty and its power lie in Franzen's ability to use his characters' personalities—which are almost so real that you feel you could touch them—to fuel the plot. And I mean all of the plot. Everything is driven by the neuroses of these incredible, and incredibly flawed, people. The nuance and richness of the emotional palette is almost overwhelming, to the point that I felt like I'd been submerged and was coming up for air each time I closed the book. Adding to the visceral ambiance is the prose. It's not flowered, by any stretch, but is incredibly real. Franzen turns the reader into both the devil and the angel on his characters' shoulders, peering directly into their thoughts, unseen. My bottom line: these people will stay with me for a very long time, and I will forever be in awe of Franzen's abilities. If you haven't read it, don't deprive yourself of it any longer.
