Rating: 
Summary: Post Modern Masterpiece
Review: ...where The Satanic Verses levelly and thoroughly stunk, for a whole raft of reasons quite unrelated to Ayatollah Khomenei's Fatwa, Franzen's effort is one of the most remerkable reads I've ever had.For one thing, in the the well established post-modern fashion, it's witty, solemn, tragic, ironic, brutal and hysterical, and in each case extremely so, and often the mood will switch quite jarringly. Franzen's depiction of ailing, failing patriarch Al Lambert is geniunely funny (he comes off more than a little like George Costanza's father), thoroughly tragic and, because of both aspects, shudderingly recognisable. Franzen's characterisation works so well because he recongises that the same person - the same characteristics, even, can be funny and tragic at the same time, depending on your perspective. And Franzen deliberately swtiches perspective throughout the book, to make this very point. The book is also gripping: I'm no great fan of "longer fiction" -having a typical male attention span, I tend to lose interest in a novel after about 400 pages unless it has pictures, but experienced no such difficulties here. Indeed, I usually read at night to help me get to sleep, but The Corrections was keeping me so awake that I had to ditch it for something a little more somniferous. It's not comfortable reading; because the characterisation is so plausible you find yourself applying the scenarios to your own life, which is (well, in my case) sobering. Nitpicks - while the characterisation was spot on, some of the plot lines were a little contrived; I didn't buy Chip's Lithuanian foray, and I couldn't help thinking Franzen let his male fantasist off the leash a little in devising some of the other subplots. But this is piffling stuff: overall, this is a five-starrer, no question about it.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Correction Needed....
Review: Painfully slow narrative exacerbated by the dispicable characters. I forced myself to finish it in hopes that the characters were met with unfortunate ends.
Rating:
Summary: Ultimately brilliant, after a rough start
Review: I think any serious reader of contemporary fiction needs at some point to confront Franzen's The Corrections, and get past the hype and vitriol that marked its quick rise to the bestseller lists last year. I myself was bemused and somewhat skeptical, thinking maybe Franzen was taking himself a little too seriously while laughing all the way to the bank on the heels of Winfrey's selection, wanting to be read by intellectual males who might theoretically balk at a book with the "Oprah's Book Club" sticker on it. I finally got past my reservations, and after putting down the book for a month about a third of the way through, I just finished the thing and think I read a masterpiece. Franzen does have his foibles as a writer, and some of his early scenes in particular I thought were pretty indulgent. I hated the first page, in which he describes the metaphor of an "alarm bell of anxiety" for far too long, and I was put off by the name of a law firm (Bragg, Neuter and Speigh) that seemed like a childish trick which a "serious" writer like Russell Banks, John Updike or Ian McEwan would never pull. Maybe Carl Hiaasen would name a law firm after operations to sterilize pets, but why mess up the Great American Novel? And while I am griping, why begin the the section of the book introducing the character Denise with a 20 page history of the Passifaro family, which includes the lady that ultimately became the wife of Denise's boss? In a 568 page book, sometimes less is more. Alright, enough of my criticisms - what did I really think? Well, about halfway through the book each of the balls Franzen tossed in the air became more and more engrossing, and by the end I thought the novel simply breathtaking. The author effectively tied up all the loose ends in satisfying fashion, and the book concludes the only way the novel really could end. Any reader whose family has been touched by dementia will be moved quite a bit. Most of you who have gotten here are familiar with the background of the novel. Alfred and Enid Lambert live in the fictional midwestern city of St. Jude. Alfred, a retired railway engineer, is slowly slipping into dementia via Parkinson's Disease, while his wife Enid firmly believes all of the family's myriad of problems would be solved, or at least swept under the rug, if she can get all three grown children back to St. Jude for one last Christmas. Franzen effectively changes the narrative focus, and we see that all is not well with any of the younger Lamberts, who each seem to be facing a crisis at home. Youngest Chip is a poor aspiring screenwriter who realizes, to his horror, that the screenplay he just submitted a) makes little or no sense; and b) has a bizarre fixation on womens' breasts. (Maybe Franzen had recently read John Irving's A Widow for One Year and had a little fun at his expense?) Through a bizarre turn of events Chip ends up in Lithuania, helping the local government bilk money out of foreign investors. Meanwhile middle child Denise, a renowned chef whose trendy Philadelphia restaurant lands her on the Food Network, makes a mess of her personal life with dire consequences to her career. And finally there is eldest son Gary, a banker who is battling alcoholism and an increasingly antagonistic marriage, and who angrily campaigns for his parents to sell the old family house in St. Jude before the house's neglect and disrepair strips it of all value, or before Alfred accidentally burns it down. Each of these mini-dramas is played out, in sometimes maddening detail, but by the end of the novel each of the Lamberts becomes entrenched in your subconscious, and you find yourself caring for the characters, foibles and all. I thought in particular the battles between Gary and his wife Caroline, including his stubborn insistence that she admit how she REALLY hurt her back, were written with keen insight and biting humor. I loved the scenes where his kids mock him in chorus with his wife, asking him,in his drunken stupor, to make them a "mixed grill" for dinner. I also loved the reminisces over past Christmas vacations at Gary's house, where his wife threw out a cheap robe given by his visiting mother before she even left town. Franzen seems to have a remarkable sense for how chasms form in marriages over seemingly trivial events and disagreements, and how parents then use subtle means to enlist the kids as allies. There are occasional rough patches to be sure, I suppose a novel of this size is bound to have at least a few, but overall I thought The Corrections was brilliant, funny, well-researched and most certainly worth the effort. Five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: I didn't like this book because it was boing, plain and simple. Don't get me wrong, Franzen definitely has awesome command of the English language (you might need to keep a dictionary handy), but the fact still remains that I did not find it interesting and had to force myself to finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Misnomer
Review: This review is basically in response to the minority of people who gave this book a poor rating. Their reasoning for speaking derogatorily towards this immense effort seemed horribly misconstrued to me; first of all, one of the complaints was that Franzen shows some sort of prejudice, or bitterness about the stereotypcial midwesterner: isn't this just human nature? Just because he's a brilliant fiction writer (and non-fiction, if you haven't read his new book of essays yet) doesn't mean that he is exempt from displaying his own warped perceptions and interpretations of the things around him. If he sees the typical midwesterner as a greasy fingered fool, so be it, for it detracts in no way from the uttter magnificence of this novel. If you can name a better novel in the last year or two (especially one wholly free of any bias towards any individual) please, let me know. I'd love to read it. As far as the beauty of this novel goes, it cannot be expressed with my feeble wordage. I've been an avid reader my entire life, and very few books have held me under a trance like this one did. The characters, though detestable at times, are beyond real. I related to Gary's pathos in that it paralleled the feelings that many of my friends have in their own marriages; Chip's character, with his vulnerability and fear of failure, resonated deeply with my own self, as did much of his other characteristics; Enid, I felt, represented the stereotypical housewife who is trying to make meaning out of an otherwise empty, obsolete, and obsequious existence; and the good ol' conservative, idealistic, rule with an iron fist Alfred is an excellent throwback to the paterfamilias of old; Denise, though interesting, was the only character that I didn't enjoy too much, but that was only because I don't know anyone like her: brilliant, hard working, and bisexual are not traits that proliferate in the state I live in. And as far as finding these characters detestable, to the point that it made the book unenjoyable, well, think about the people you meet during your average day; people, in general, are detestable, in their own unique kind of way. Basically, to sum up this rambling, this book allows, more so than most, a person to enter the psyche of an assortment of outlandish individuals, but though outlandish, very real, with real insecurities, real fears, and real hopes and dreams. This is why I think some of the people that reviewed it gave it the thumbs down: some of the characters probably reminded them of their own vulnerabilities, their own failures or shortcomings, and most of all, their own attainable and unattainable dreams that seem so far of from achieving. Anyone who wishes to become some sort of writer in the future should take note of this book; it transcends the majority of modern fiction in its honesty, its compassion, and its truly moving caricature of contemporary life in America. It borders on poetic at numerous times, and should be joy to read for anyone with an appetite for caustic wit-laden writing that probes the inner-depths of the mulitiple vertiginous personalities we all inhabit throughout periods of our lives. If that's bad fiction, then I don't want to read good fiction.
Rating:
Summary: I stand corrected
Review: In the New Yorker a few weeks ago Jonathan Franzen wrote an article in which he classified writers into two groups: 1) Status Writers, who write for the sake of their art alone (Flaubert, Goethe); 2) Contract Writers, who make a pact with their readers and feel a duty to deliver writing attuned to their needs (Any Best-Selling Writer). Franzen claims to be a Contract Writer with his readers' sentiments uppermost in mind. And yet we have constructions like "electro-pointillist Santa Claus faces" and "pixilated middle distance" to name just a few. The reason this novel resonates for me is that Franzen manages to be both a Contract and a Status Writer. That is, he gives his readers credit for their intelligence and yet he paints character portraits with fearlessly unblushing and unapologetic realism. The characters drive the story line, which is a mark of great writing. While I personally prefer Status Writers, as they simply seem to offer more enduring literature, Franzen really can write and seems to have layered his work so there's something for everyone in The Corrections. As Franzen's own father suffered in real life like Alfred, Franzen was unafraid to look the devil squarely in the eyes and take on this "correction" as a creative theme. I'm glad that the hardships of my own life can be viewed as mere corrections -- surely, they have been instructive and in a stock market phrase sooner or later inevitably revert to their mean. This novel is a marker for the malaise of the contemporary American family. The novel's layered quality in construction will ensure both its enduring literary prominence and widespread popular appeal.
Rating: 
Summary: A family you won't forget
Review: It is easy to see why this book was chosen by Oprah: Above all, it's a heart-wrenching family saga, and many readers will find something to identify with. The words I remembered from reading reviews - Parkinson's, Lithuania, biotech - had not led me to expect the exciting read that "The Corrections" proved to be. You have to be a true master to base a novel of suspense on the question whether all three grown-up children will make it to the family Christmas celebrations - Franzen pulls it off spectacularly.
"The Corrections" portrays a culture which has undergone incredible changes in just a few decades. Gary, Chip and Denise want to lead their lives as corrections of their fathers puritanical, depressed life, in which he did not allow himself to enjoy anything other than work. In spite of what other readers say, this book ends on a far more optimistic note than, say, Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks", to which it has been compared. This is not "The Decline of a Family". - The portrait of Gary, the materialist successful banker, seemed to me the most striking one. Isn't the final one of his wife's ten commandments the unacknowledged motto of our materialist advertising culture: "There's absolutely nothing useful about suffering." Here Franzen's satire hits home.
There are some parts of the book, however, in which Franzen tries to show off how clever and modernist he is - and which I found somewhat off-putting (the surrealism of "At Sea", the long stretches of Curly Eberle's baloney about his biotech inventions). Even worse, Franzen was simply lazy when he chose to portray Lithuania as a country torn apart by civil unrest and economic disaster; there is a frighteningly large number of countries which are exactly like the one he discribes, so why not bother to pick one of these? As a European, I can't help seeing in this an example of wilful American ignorance of what's going on in the rest of the world...
Of course I had stopped being angry with the book long before I reached the final pages. This is a book about what life is about. I find it hard to imagine a reader who will not be moved by the final chapter - this is the life we must all face.
Rating:
Summary: All sides of a family
Review: (I'm French so, forgive my mistakes) Yes, It's disturbing. Yes, it's really hard to read the last chapter of that book. But yes, it's such, such a testimony of honesty, of writing the right things on the right moment about the life that we can have. Franzen is The autor of our generation. Dealing with our own demons, trying to catch little bits of happiness and at the same time, trying to always fit in those old shoes called: The Family. How much love is in that book, how much authenticity about all the characters is shown in that book.
For sure, reading it confront us to our own demons, our own self- defenses of the daily, but why cant we face it? Why do we have to swim in an ocean of romance and lagoons and butterflies when reality is not that. The corrections is THE CORRECTION about what we maybe like to read or see at TV: the wrong thing. The Corrections is a novel about the real thing. Yes, it's strange, yes, it's underground. But it's the TRUTH. But the problem is that a lot of people are too much afraid to admit it. Enid, Al, Gary, Chip and Denise, I love you all, and I hate you at the same time... Mister Franzen, continue to write the honesty.... and to confront our generation of fools to be prepared for the future, a near future.... Congratulations Mister Franzen, you did a masterpiece.
Well, I read it in French, a lot of mistakes in the traduction, so, the next time, ask somebody having the skills to encounter your talent. Bravo et Félicitations!
Rating:
Summary: The kind of book you'd love to hate but can't
Review: I had a little hissy fit when Franzen decided he didn't want his book featured on Oprah. I was so put off by that attitude that I avoided picking up a copy in hardback. So I confess to reading the paperback with a chip on my shoulder about the author's attitude. And frankly Franzen is uncharitable to his characters; he doesn't seem to like anyone in his own book. Throughout most of the book he's particularly disdainful of the elderly Midwestern parents, missing few opportunities to look down his authorial nose at the mother's knick-knacks, choice of furniture, obsession with the family Christmas, etc. The druggish ex-prof son Chip, fired for sleeping with a student, is written more sympathetically than his mom. Then I realized I was being upset with Franzen for being mean to FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. In other words, he had written these oddball people so clearly and precisely that I was as mad at him as if he had condescended to real people. So on that level I'd have to say he's an excellent writer, and recommend his ability to bring characters to life as an outstanding feature of the book. Other pluses: He's funny, if sometimes mean. More importantly, this is the most realistic depiction of the tragedies of Alzheimers (which afflicts the father character) that I have every read. Since this is a problem that has touched my family's life I was appreciative of Franzen's abilities. This feature of the book is actually quite touching. Overall I'd say, Franzen's a good writer and deserves your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Someone has to be the naysayer
Review: "The Corrections" has been lauded as throwing open the doors of (post)postmodern literature to the mainstream--Franzen has supposedly taken the wit and keen insight of DeLillo or Pynchon or Barthes and made them accessible to everyone. In truth, "The Corrections" is a sacrifice bunt, a calculated attempt to bring a runner home. It's really one of the most inorganic novels you'll ever come across. Everything reads as constructed, from Chip's just-referential-enough academic backstory down to the intricately scripted senile dementia scenes. The characters, while interesting and vaguely sympathetic, clunk around like robots, fulfilling their rote functions in Franzen's überfamily. There's no heart to it, no spontaneity. The emotional climax and tragic dénouement hit you like a controlled demolition, worked out to the last detail. The prose is so sterling it's practically chrome. The result is that you feel manhandled, like some drunk in a bar is leaning over you to show you how to shoot pool. Franzen isn't willing to let his readers grope their way through the learning curve. Without that crucial give-and-take, that honest *human* interaction, I think most readers are going to come away from "The Corrections" feeling like they just left the Hall of Presidents at Disneyland. The animatronics were great and some facts were spoken, but did it really mean anything? And will they remember it? It's been a year since the first run of "The Corrections" and we haven't yet seen a follow-up success--some great "literary" novels have been published and the popular groundswell that Franzen enjoyed hasn't even feigned interest.
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