Rating: 
Summary: A novel to learn from
Review: The most wonderful aspect of Jonathan Franzen's novel The Corrections is its challenge to the everyday reader. This novel challenges its reader to be as intellectually open as its author. A reader must be willing to swim around in one's own intellect, and realize that it is okay to read something that is smarter than the average person. Mr. Franzen wants the reader to realize that to read one must constantly be learning about the world around them.What this novel is more than anything a study of the American family. Mr. Franzen ignites an intellectual debate over how imperfect the ideal American family is, no matter how hard the people involved are trying. Enid, the mother, tries harder than anyone in the family to ignore imperfections and focus on the idea that her family is wonderful. Eventually, it takes drugs to enable her to live in this fantasy realm. At the end of the novel even she realizes that she cannot live in her fantasy and will need "to make some changes". The father, Al, has left this world behind and, through Parkinson's, is living in his own fantasy world. It is because of this disease that we find out how hard he has tried to protect his perfect family (hiding his daughter's affair with his coworker, and believing in the greatness of his wild son). The most powerful aspect of this is the fact that all three of the Lambert children are completely messed up. Mr. Franzen shows that the no matter how hard parents try to raise their children in the "American Way", they cannot control how their children will grow up. Each child has a different affliction, Gary is depressed, Chip is a sexual addict, and Denise looks for affection in all the wrong places, but they begin to realize their faults and instead of blaming their parents take their faults upon themselves. I think that those who have a hard time with this novel are the people who are not allowing their intellect to run free. This novel, more than any I have read lately, allows the reader not only to observe the life of these characters, but also to be educated by their lives and their passions. Therefore, revel in the worlds of literary theory, the culinary arts, and investment banking-because the author allows you to be a learner. And learning something from that which you read is the greatest gift an author can give his reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Literary marvel
Review: Much hype surrounded this book, from Oprah to winning the National Book Award. For once, the hype is true, and "The Corrections" delivers quite a punch with a riverting story driven by equally more riveting characters. Meet Enid and Alfred, in their waning years. Enid's trying her hardest to pretend everything is as normal as she thinks life should be while her longtime husband Alfred descends into terrible dementia. And then, meet their children: Gary, an obsessive, materialistic lout with a co-dependent marriage; Chip, a drug abusing washout writer with a penchant for younger girls; and Denise, a chef extraordinaire awakening to her sexuality. All of the children are deep and complex characters, compelling in their own faults and personal dementias. The blending of these characters is both unique, and representative of all of our families. You may be reading this book and think "I know someone who would say or do exactly that." As the characters mix, sometime hilarous, sometime painful results ensue. Especially interesting is learning about wonderkind Gary first through the eyes of his siblings, and then to meet him in his story is to see him in his reality. One amazing thing Franzen does is allows us to enter's Alfred demented point-of-view, and suddenly the stories become disjointed, odd, bizarre. We see life as Alfred sees life. HIs incoherency is amazing in such we sympathize with him as we were unable to before. Ride through these chapters as illogical, knowing the story will fade back into sense soon enough. One problem I had with the book was in Chip's story and its evolution into a wild subplot that brings him to Lithuiania. It was my least favorite sections of the book because it just seemed to come out of nowhere and really not illuminate his character very well. I felt that Franzen needed Chip to get out of the way while he told Denise's and Gary's stories. I would have preferred Chip to stick around and create more havoc, possibly with Gary, instead of shipping him halfway across the country. Jonathan Franzen granted the world a gift in creating the severely disjointed Lambert family. Ignore the hype, stick with the book, and enjoy the word feast.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible, terrible, terrible!
Review: I feel that Franzen's editor should have done a few more "corrections" of this novel. Anyone who writes sentences that go on for a page with semi-colon after semi-colon of semi-connected thoughts should be avoided at all costs! Franzen's vocabulary is advanced, but forced (as if he had a five dollar word quota that he was trying to meet). The characters are thinly drawn--Alfred's treatment of Enid belongs in a world fifty years ago, as does Gary's treatment of his wife. Chip is a screw-up of the most annoying kind--brilliant and bored. The sibling rivalry and parental preference is outlandish and sickening. I cannot imagine children being raised in such a functional dysfunctional family being this passive aggressive and jealous. There is nothing endearing or sympathetic about these characters. They are merely pathetic.
Rating:
Summary: Now my family looks pretty good!
Review: When I started this book, I hadn't heard anything about it, so I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be satirical, serious or what. It turned out to be a family's story which can at times be both. It is a good look at a family that manages to come together when it looks like all is lost. A good thought provoking story that lets the reader see all sides of a situation.
Rating:
Summary: Much ado about nothing!!
Review: Honestly, this book never enticed me from the get-go. But, of course, (and foolishly) I had to see what all the buzz was about. Well, as the title of my review will tell you... NOTHING! Franzen is an amateurish writer; redundant, self-indulgent and worst of all - boring! This book features nothing but run-on, mystifying anecdotes, a confusing blend of past and present in the same chapter/section/paragraph and characters who are neither likeable or dislikeable. Never before have I read a novel where the reader couldn't possibly choose sides regarding a specific character. Whether or not Franzen shunned Oprah's endorsement of the book, the fact that Oprah did attempt to get behind the book should be enough to ward off intelligent readers. An Oprah book selection is the equivilent of prime time sitcom TV; unintelligible fodder for the unitelligent American masses. Here's a little tid-bit (though I'm certain anyone who enjoyed this book won't be savvy enough to take it and any schooled reader already knows...) For quality, entertaining, artistic, well written, valuable current American fiction, see Stephen King, John Grisham, Chuck Palahniuk, Bret Easton Ellis and Simon Drax. Otherwise, enjoy your weekly dosage of CSI and your Oprah 'Book of the Month.'
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: .... Suffice it to say this is the best book I've read since David Foster Wallace's _Infinite Jest_, and it had a similar effect on me: namely, sleep deprivation. I honestly could not put it down. It is gloriously, deeply, painfully, hysterically entertaining, insightful, moving, rich, et cetera blah blah blah. ...
Rating:
Summary: Franzen's Mission Accomplished
Review: I understand that Franzen's aim was a commercially successful
contemporary
novel whose deep social insight rivalled that of DeLillo. Assuming
that The
Corrections was commercially successful (I have no knowledge of
this), I
think Franzen accomplished his goal. Personally I far preferred
Franzen's
tighter writing style to DeLillo's, I found his characters more
interesting,
and I thought the plotting, although less intricate, equal to or
better than
DeLillo's. I thought he had important things to say about class,
academia,
aging, drug use, sexuality, and more.
Rating:
Summary: Quality writing
Review: A very good book. It was hard to picture that I would like this book when I was reading the first few pages. But it got such good reviews that I had to keep reading and make sure that I like it. (My mom's rule was to read the first 100 pages and then decide if I want to keep going or not.) The story follows the marriage of a fictional older couple, Alfred and Enid Lambert from somewhere in the Midwest and their 3 grown children, Chip (whom we meet first), Gary, and Denise. At first I didn't like the characters at all. I found it hard to sympathize with any of them. However, as I kept reading, I really started to like the author's writing style and it ameliorated my dislike of the characters somewhat. Every few pages Franzen would surprise me with an exceptionally clever sentence or phrase. The other important thing I like about his writing is that he is not repetitive. If you skim a paragraph, you might miss an important detail because he is only going to say it once. This is good practice for me as I have a tendency to become lazy when reading other contemporary writers who tend to use dialogue to convey important plot points, rahter than using descriptive paragraphs as Franzen does. (I noticed this especially as I was nearing the end of the book and was getting tired late one night. I skimmed the last few paragraphs when Alfred and Enid are on the cruise. If you have read the book, you know something significant happens at the end of the cruise chapter, so these were not good paragraphs to skim. Luckily I caught myself doing this, and went back and read more carefully. Then I went to sleep at the end of the chapter, like I should have done in the first place! I have a bad habit of reading until it's too late and I forget everything that I read the next day and have to read it all over again.) There is some language in the book that some particularly sensitive readers might find offensive. There are some themes that are not appropriate for younger readers. Nothing to be concerned about, just be aware of that before you start it. Overall, I would highly recommend this excellent book.
Rating: 
Summary: The writer is too visible
Review: I like a transparent author, one who disappears as his or her story takes shape. Think of Steinbeck in _Of Mice and Men_ or Wally Lamb in _I Know This Much is True_ or a host of others. Franzen is unwilling to get out of the way. He works hard to show that he's clever, to demonstrate that he's a great writer. Each of the demonstrations stands in the way. I went to a reading of Tobias Wolff's a few years back. He read some stories from his collection _The Night in Question_. I had read each of them before and, as he read, I was re-reading them again. His voice was simply the carrier, just as his writing voice was the carrier when I read them on my own. I picture Franzen reading his work in a too-loud shirt, with a voice that calls attention to his reading, and with asides and smiles throughout. All in all, it felt like a proud writer trying to show off. I wasn't carried away by it. There was too much writer and too little writing there.
Rating:
Summary: powerful, troubling indictment of instant-gratificationites
Review: This flawless novel is riveting in both its brilliant prose and searing yet hilarious depictions of self-destructing characters. This complex tapestry of a typical American family's painful implosion is one of the finest American novels written in the last quarter century. The only aspect I find troubling is the impression it will leave for future generations. While Franzen is every bit the great writer as a Fitzgerald or an Updike, he paints such a brutally realistic portrait of our times that it cannot help but leave a bitter aftertaste for those who will follow us. But Franzen can hardly be faulted for his truths. In short, this truly is a masterpiece.
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