Jonathan Franzen is one of today’s most undeniably talented and intelligent writers and, currently, he is pretty much on top of the world. His most recent novel, Freedom, is being declared the new definitive American novel, a masterpiece, a story that defines a generation, etc. etc. I was first intr...
This book dragged a little for me, but it's Franzen so I knew it would going into it. (Sometimes it's like his whole goal is just to make you suffer.) It's preachy, snooty, and melodramatic. It paints a pretty dismal portrait of the modern American experience (for the privileged class, at least) and...
I don't usually read contemporary fiction unless a book has been recommended, suggested, assigned, book-club'd, given to me, pushed on me by relentless friends, etc. because contemporary fiction is depressing. The point of this it is to bring up real life issues that people face every single day. Th...
I really hate the star system for these kinds of books. I'm not sure how to review this book. It's not the great American novel, but I see the potential. Franzen is no slouch but the novel suffered from too much observation (if astute) and not enough edge. It's like Franzen can recognize the issues...
So very, very Franzenian, but not nearly as good as [b:The Corrections|3805|The Corrections|Jonathan Franzen|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355011305s/3805.jpg|941200]--looser, with less of a point and less incisive humor. The buildup is great, but there isn't really a payoff.
[b:The Corrections|3805|The Corrections|Jonathan Franzen|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355011305s/3805.jpg|941200] was clearly a better work. Decent writing, maybe even deserves the title 'great American novel,' but Franzen seems a bit fixated on these force-of-nature Scandinavian midwesterners who ...
Franzen has a good deal of talent in how he develops his characters, but I'm not sure if this book lived up to all the hype. You can read my review here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2014/08/30/what-is-a-portrait-of-america/
Nope. This one ain't going to happen. I'm tired of sexists. I understand that almost everything written before 1920 will be sexist, because it was the norm. So I tend to just look the other way in literature written before 1960-ish.However, in today's day and age, it just stinks along with all the...
To keep in style of the book this review will be just a lot of rambling. I mean, it was mostly a soap opera. And I just don’t do soap operas. I can just about manage about 10 minutes every 5th episode, but that’s about it. And Franzen submitted me to 570 bloody pages of a soap opera which I had to d...
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