The Corrections

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating Novel
Review: This story could have been good - if only one of the Lamberts was even mildly sympathetic - instead of all of them being simply pathetic. Franzen must have taken a thesaurus with him wherever he went to write the book and used the most difficult words he could find to express his point. I'm an educated, intelligent woman and I've not had to go to the dictionary while reading a novel as many times as I did with this novel - not a single trip to which revealed a deeper meaning that would have enhanced the storyline. I still have trouble realizing that this horrid story received a major literary award.

Rating:
Summary: Why is it called the corrections
Review: I found this book interesting but tedious - why is it called the corrections?

Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Paper
Review: After all the great reviews in the literary press, I had so looked forward to reading this book. What a disappointment.

The characters are beyond annoying. There isn't a single likable character in the whole bunch. And while there's certainly no requirement that you actually like the characters, it would make it easier to slog through this endless mess of a non-story.

I haven't talked to a single person who raves about this book, but have heard from countless people who either finished it but hated it, or simply couldn't bear to read to the end.

If you have plenty of time on your hands, insomnia, or just a desire to punish yourself, go pick it up at your local library. Otherwise, you'd be far more entertained by re-reading a real intellectual classic, like maybe The Cat in the Hat...

Rating:
Summary: A man in love with his pen.
Review: I would actually give this 2.5 stars, a square down the middle C effort, and that is only because I'm sure there is a good book buried in there somewhere (like the optimist's pony). I think the author realized his main fault--he's a poor character study, and decided to spin his tale into satire. Good move. Unfortunately, his secondary fault--pompous verbosity, escapes him entirely. Did he leave ANYTHING out? I wish he had because there are flashes of really good writing. It's just the ratio of good to banal is not in his favor. It will be interesting to see what he does from here on out.

Rating:
Summary: Things that make you go "Hmmmm."
Review: It astounds me how critics can create a bandwagon when there really is no reason to. There's no doubt that Franzen can write. But not only is there not a cohesive story being told here, I felt like I needed a shower after spending 500+ pages with these characters. With whom was I, as the reader, supposed to sympathize? Every single character was as self-obsessed as any I've come across in a long time. Gary, the older son, was involved in a lousy marriage. His wife and children were aligned against him, but can we really blame them? (By the way, what ever happened to the buildup concerning the hidden camera in the kitchen? Only one of numerous minor story lines that had absolutely no payoff). Maybe Chip, the younger son, who was off on bizarre adventures in Eastern Europe? Maybe the emotionally abusive lesbian daughter, Denise? Hardly. Oddly, the one character we were positioned NOT to like was the mother of this clan. But nowhere in the book did I firmly understand why she was supposed to be so unlikeable. Fine, she isn't perfect, but she certainly wasn't the wicked witch Franzen was attempting to portray her as. This is writing as an extended therapy session, with Franzen simply trying to work out years of self-loathing and anger against his own family. Reading this book just reinforced something I've known for years... go with books that friends and acquaintances recommend, not the critics.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, it's real "literature," but not a page-turner
Review: I can see why this book has received such acclaim, as it is very thought-povoking, descriptive and well-written. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped, and it took me awhile to get through it. The characters were all so un-likable, that I couldn't really warm to this book or get attached to anyone in this pathetic family. The pitiable Enid and Alfred were the most likable and that's not saying much. The book didn't really delve into how the three children might have been raised to make them turn into such selfish, sniveling, un-compassionate jerks. I mean, the parents seem annoying, but that's hardly reason for the kids to be so rotten. This being said, I still enjoyed the book, but then, I enjoy a lot of books. Most of them more than this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Five-Edged Sword
Review: Rather than the story of a repressed midwestern mother trying to round up her family for one last Christmas dinner at the old pad, The Corrections is more of a commentary on the varied and dire effects of our ever-changing modern society on the five members of the Lambert family. The majority of the book consists of long segments of each character's individual life sans the family rather than an 'epic saga' of the family as a whole. Franzen then unconventionally and clevery connects each segment together for a thorough understanding of the past, present, and future.

Although it took me about 300 pages to begin to roll into the flow of Franzen's unusual style in this extremely dense novel, I ended up sighing with satisfaction and was glad I stuck with it as I finished the last page. Franzen tends to be unnecessarily excessive throughout much of the book. There were a few instances where I had to do a quick scan of some of the foreboding pages to see if they were actually relevant to the novel and worth reading---something that I have never even considered doing in the past. It appears that Franzen enjoys developing not only his main characters but also every nuance of every name, place, theory, and political byline in every sentence and paragraph, which can become quite exhausting when they have literally nothing to do with any other part of the story.

Contrary to the opinions of many other reviewers, I felt that what made many readers 'hate' all of the characters was actually more realistic than disappointing. Needless to say, Enid reminded me of my own mother in very frightening ways and actually made me see my mother's motivations a bit more clearly. I strongly identified with Gary's character during his initial introduction in the novel--because he appeared more of a victim than an antagonist. On the other hand, I loathed Chip and his paranoid self-centered disposition from the start. However, as intricacies of the novel began to connect, I started to realize why Gary's wife and kids victimized him and saw him as an obnoxious devil by the end of the novel; similarly, Chip's failure and irresponsibility were transformed into issues I could finally understand and sympathize with.

I wouldn't dub Franzen's novel the 'First Great American Novel of the 21st century, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't read anything they can call 'serious fiction' lately--it's worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Read
Review: Sometimes, a book that toys with the flow of time and with narative threads can be tedious or confusing. In The Corrections, both these tendancies are present, but they feel natural, even vital. That is an accomplishment. Another accomplishment is writing a truly ensemble novel that still has intimacy. The story weaves through the lives of five people in a midwestern family, and never does one seem more important, interesting, or central than the others. We flow from one narative stream to another, and the transitions are as smoth as silk.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of reading this book was the intamacy I felt with the characters. They were so full of flesh and blood, I almost felt like I was part Lambert, like I married into the family. I found myself, towards the end, saying, "Yeah, that's just like Chip." "Yeah, that's Albert, all right." The family is all messed up, but who's family isn't?

This strong dose of reality present through out reaches its pinacle in the conclusion, which respects the reader enough not to tie up all ends, but which also doesn't feel cut short. The end is truly the end, yet satisfyingly so.

All in all, a tremendously entertaining read that grabs you and wraps you into its madness, until you won't want to come out. Buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Farcical Franzen
Review: Near the end of the book, the middle child, Chip, understands that he must rewrite his screenplay, for the 8th time, with a farcical slant. Although I am not yet familiar with Franzen's other books, I believe this is what happened to him, in his writing of the Corrections. The beginning of the book was a bit of a struggle for me, as my interest wasn't perked until Chip was headed for Lithuania. But then the midwestern foibles of the Lambert family took off and hit a little too close to home on more than a few occasions. In many ways this book reminds me of the social observations and interweaving style of story telling of Tom Wolfe in "A Man in Full". I felt there were a few too many hanging story fragments, but perhaps that just makes us sorry to have the book end. I am glad that I stuck with this book and would recommend it to most of my friends.....but not my Mother.

Rating:
Summary: Once you get past the first 75 pages you'll love it
Review: I picked up this book, yes, because of the Oprah scandal. The beginning is really rough to get through and I almost gave up, but I am so glad that I didn't. I love the way the author switches the narration between characters and his vivid descriptions (something one of the previous reviewers thought was ridiculous). I am amazed at how he was able to get into the skin of an elderly man suffering from dementia; Franzen made me FEEL like I was in Alfred's skin. I thought the story was clever and for the most part consistently kept my interest. There were times where I would have to take a deep breath and pause because he was able to press so many dysfunctional buttons that I'm sure anyone with a family has experienced. Yes, there were a few story lines that were a little silly but over all this was a great book that I would recommend to all my friends.