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Summary: I struggled to get to page 282, but...
Review: I struggled to get to page 282, but a talking feces is my limit. Clearly there are some redeeming qualities within the pages of The Corrections. There are even flashes of genius, but at no time was I awed by the prose or impressed with the scope of this novel. Others have handled dysfunctional families better. I would suggest Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres. I am surprised that Oprah recommended this book. Because of her I have read such great novels as A Lesson Before Dying and House of Sand and Fog. I have no idea what compelled her to recommend this book. If you're looking for hapless characters trying to overcome dysfunctional childhoods, nobody does it better than Richard Russo.
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Summary: A waste of time and money
Review: Nothing is ever resolved. There is no point to any of it. This book does nothing but depress and bore the reader. Don't put yourself through the agony!!
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Summary: Strange...
Review: This is a very unusual book about a very strange (or are they honestly just very typical?) family. Not a "fun" book or a light read, so be sure you are in the mood for some serious issues when you start this one.
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Summary: A dysfunctional family for the ages!
Review: "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen gives the readers a sometimes comic, sometimes tragic look at the trials of a dysfunctional family (is there any other kind?), in which the matriarch is trying to bring her kids together for one last Christmas at the old family home. This is a much tougher proposition than one might think. The mother is a -- ahem -- witch from the old school, meddling and prying. Her husband is a stodgy and stubborn old coot with Parkinson's and rapidly advancing dementia. The kids are a mess. Chip is a sex-obsessed fellow with dillusions that he can write an Important Screenplay. Gary has no control of his family and is constantly monitoring his depression level. His wife complains about how manipulative her mother-in-law is, but she is every bit as bad, or worse! Denise, the daughter, finds success as a chef, but her love life causes untold complications. This is a very readable, yet intellectual book, that takes the reader from the Midwest, to Philadelphia and New York, to Lithuania. It's very absorbing and well worth all of its 566 pages.
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Summary: Cynic's View
Review: This book was so full of cynical, depressed characters I wonder how it ever got finished. I imagine that if Franzen can so acurately portray these personality traits, he must struggle with them himself, which must be hard as a writer. I tended to become disinterested when the story shifted from one character to another, but the extraordinary writing made me stay with it. I have recommended this book more than most I have read recently which means something. I'm not sure if I felt so strongly about it because I feel like it's relevent to our time or because it so much reminded me of my own family, but if you've ever blamed your problems on your parents, you'll surely relate.
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Summary: The Corrections--unoriginal
Review: My biggest issue with The Corrections is that I found it unoriginal. Chip, his career, his relationship with one of his students, his drug use, his obsession with his bad manuscript, and his lack of responsibility all reminded me of Grady Tripp in Wonder Boys, only not nearly as compelling. As far as talking turds go, nothing will ever be as shocking or as funny as Mr Hanky from South Park. The sections of the book that redeem it are the ones that include Gary and his family. Not because Gary is a nice guy but because I believe the descriptions of his life. This is more than I can say for the other characters, except perhaps Denise. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I'd tell them to read Wonder Boys by Micheal Chabon, instead.
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Summary: Oh, Oprah! You were right! This is a keeper!
Review: I only knew of Franzen's hostility about his novel being selected by the Oprah Book Club. I never read his book. Didn't care to even try, until a young woman friend asked me about it and I thought, "Why not now?" I am so glad I did! Jonathan Franzen obviously has his finger on the true pulse of an aging population and the grown children who labor with their new responsibility. As a former member of the "sandwich generation", whose beloved parents are now gone over six years, I see glimpses of them in Franzen's Enid and Alfred and am amazed. The pain in this family, the estrangement and dysfunction, is often hysterically funny, JUST LIKE REAL LIFE! And each grown child's passage into the role of a child parenting parents, having to get along with siblings during the most stressful of times is simply amazing. I just think that this book is a must read on any modern reading list. It is certainly modern literature and worth the journey. Franzen's characters will live with me for a long time and I am grateful that such an amazing writer exists. This is not light stuff, but unbelievably worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
Review: Is it the best book I've ever read? No. Is it ambitious in scope? Seemingly. Actually, Franzen tells a fairly simple and straight-forward story about a family with many warts and all details, but reading it is something like taking a leisurely cross-country drive. It has interesting scenery along the way and plenty of detours that creep into everything from Americans' obsession with ... consumerism, the Internet, and self-medication, to the nature (or nurture) of homosexuality. Along the way we encounter unlikeable characters that could come from anyone's family. But the overall effect is anti-climactic, kind of like driving across the country not to stop at the Grand Canyon, but rather to end up at a Wal-Mart parking lot. As for the prose, I would call it, at best, uneven. Here and there Franzen seems to strain, ignoring what may be a tin ear. We get such operatic self indulgences as: "The time was that malignant fiveishness to which the flu sufferer awakens after late-afternoon fever dreams. A time shortly after five which was a mockery of five." Please, spare me! Elsewhere I ran into these ridiculous descriptions: "It was the season of thunder in St. Jude. The air had a smell of Mexican violence, of hurricanes or coups." Huh?? Or: "The air had a disturbed southern snowy flavor." Sorry, can't say I can relate. Exactly what does Mexican violence smell like? How does southern snow taste different from northern snow? I didn't know you could smell a coup! Imagine what the police could do with that information! Reaching for the thesaurus, Franzen writes: "Puffing frost through O-shaped mouth holes with their weirdly decontexualized lips, they tested the flexure of his left boot's sole." O.K. Then there were these high-brow philosophical reveries: "If it had still been September, Gary might have seen in Jonah's decision a parable of the crisis of ... duty in a culture of consumer choice." Oh, yeah, most people have these fleeting thoughts all the time. And: "It was a testament to the insulatory effectiveness of political boundaries that power didn't simply arc across the gap between such divergent econimic voltages." Still worse: "Denise's shampoo had the pleasing, subtle scents of late-model Western capitalism." Spare me the bizarre details and let the story speak for itself! I don't think Franzen would dare. He has to make us aware of his self-concious efforts to sound unusual at all times. Overall, though, I'd have to say that Franzen succeeds. ...
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Summary: I Wondered What the Point of This Book Was
Review: I read this book as the monthly selection in my bookclub. None of the characters were even likable, although they were less dislikable by the end. I wondered what the point of this book was. These were all such disfunctional people that I wondered WHY the author would want to write so extensively about them! Did he come from a dysfunctional family himself, or has he known a lot of people from dysfunctional families? He certainly describes them in exacting detail. I didn't hate the book, but it is not one I would ever pick up on my own, or recommend to my friends.
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Summary: Modern living. Complex quirky people. Great writing.
Review: This book manages to capture, with tongue-in-cheek humor, the essence of modern American life. With a mastery of his craft, Jonathan Franzen brings it all to life -- from stock scams to cruise ships to pharmaceuticals to consumer culture to an idealization of Midwestern family life. I found myself smiling at the way he used his words to convey the essence of it all. But it's not his wry look at the foibles of our society that pulled me into the book. And it's not even the plot, which is a simple one regarding a mother's wish to have her three adult children together with her at Christmas and all the personal dramas of each member of the family to make this happen. What kept me awake each night, fighting sleep until I could read just a little bit more, were the wonderful, richly developed characters. They are all interesting, quirky and complex. I hesitate using the word "dysfunctional" as it implies that perfection is actually possible and if only we could make the right "corrections", we'd all live in an ideal world. This is exactly the point the author is making though, as he gets into the heart and soul of what human beings are really and truly like. We meet Edna and Alfred, the aging couple from a small town called St. Jude. His bodily and mental functions are deteriorating. She's denying it all. We meet their son Chip, who has just lost his college teaching job because of an obsession with a student. Their other son, Gary, is supposedly happily married and living the consumer's dream. And their daughter Denise, divorced and a successful restaurateur, is in a rather non-conventional relationship. But that's just the bare bones of who they are. The author makes sure that we get into each of these character's skins. I felt the tensions, heard the thoughts and saw the weaknesses. I got inside their heads as they make their foolish choices. I experienced their upsets. I let the author's words wash over me and change me and, for a short time, I actually became each of them. I found that fantastically exciting. And I was left with an enriched understanding of my own imperfections. If a book can do all that I can give it nothing less than one of my highest recommendations.
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