Rating: 
Summary: Unsettling Book is Worth Reading
Review: Every once in awhile you confront a novel that forces you to re-examine your views on a number of important subjects. Sometimes that realization doesn't come until after you complete reading the book, which didn't seem all that profound while you were getting through it, however at the end it hits you. Such as is the case with this very unsettling novel "The Corrections."The story is in many ways a narrative of the Lambert family, comprised of patriarch Alfred, his wife Enid and offspring Gary, Denise and Chip. While Enid and Alfred have been married for decades, it's safe to say that the family is horribly dysfunctional. The story reflects on the history of the family and mostly on the impact of Alfred on the rest of his family. His decisions and choices in life impact the others for decades on end and provide the basis for the entire book. Along the way the author touches on a number of hot button subjects including dementia, caring for the aged, drug abuse, mental illness, drug therapies to treat mental illness, stock manipulaton and greed, sexual feelings and actions of various stripes, the irrational expectations that families place on its members, parenting and an overall examination of the meaning of life. The author weaves this story with a mix of humor and irony that sometimes is overwrought but it is compelling. I've noticed that a number of reviewers have complained about the characters in the book but that's probably because there are plenty of kernels of truth in this book that probably remind people too much of their own lives. The book made my very uncomfortable a number of times and I'm still grappling with some of its implications. The issues of caring for aged parents and the sometimes related issue of mental health among seniors is not an easy subject to confront. Luckily the book intersperses the uncomfortable with humor, but don't pick this book up if all you want is sweetness and light. Overall, I recommend the book and applaud the author for his courageous examination of these issues.
Rating: 
Summary: On and On Ad Nauseum
Review: I bought this book because of the outstanding reviews. I gave it an hour of my time and gave up. I wish I had the hour back it was such a waste. Like a bad movie full of mental suffering signifying nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks for saving me the agony
Review: ...of reading any more than the 20 pages I struggled through. I would rate this no stars if I had the choice. Too cute for words exactly but it's worse than that. The reviewers who passed on thoughtful comments about the negative qualities of this book should be applauded for warning us. Though the subject matter seems interesting at first, I think this is one of the sloppiest pieces of writing I've seen in years and its publication is an insult to the reader. Franzen ought to be embarrassed to see it in print and the professional reviewers who even suggested that the book might have any literary merit are a disgrace. Sorry, but I think the publication of this book has to do with marketing and money, and nothing else. I am so glad I didn't waste my money on it.
Rating: 
Summary: too clever by half
Review: Around page #370 I quit the book. I just couldn't stand another wry observation or witty--oh so witty--page-long sentence. Don't get me wrong, you'll be hooked at the beginning, but in short-order I was praying for that guy in the front--yeah, YOU, Mr. Franzen, to move the heck outta the way and let his characters and story free themselves from his clutches.
A real smarmy read that I ultimately could no longer stomach for all the cleverness and obvious arrogance of the author.
Rating:
Summary: Biggest waste of time in a while....
Review: I had high expectations of this book and was terribly dissappointed. It attempts a lot but succeeds in nothing. Maybe it is a reflection of our times? I found myself truly disliking all characters, feeling no understanding towards them and being totally annoyed at their *mis*adventures. How boring! All you have to do is look in your neighborhood (or your own family) for people like this-- not a new story and nothing to be learned nor gained by reading about it. This book truly fails to soar over every-day family disfunction into something that is worth remembering.
Rating: 
Summary: brilliant
Review: franzen's book is brilliant. the characters are so compelling, their lives, interests, and quirks so deep, that this is truly the art of the novel. couple this with a plot artfully woven together, this is a fantastic novel! best i've read in a year.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect title to a near-perfect novel
Review: Jonathan Franzen fully deserves the awards his latest novel has garnered. I was intrigued throughout with what his title *The Corrections* meant to the story and to the superbly wrought characters of this old-very modern family. He did not let me down. The word (Corrections) was one of Franzen's many scapels with which he expertly sliced and diced this family, modern culture, and all geographies between St. Jude and Eastern Europe. His knowledge is astonishing. His metaphors are wit perfected -- a pierce of the rapier that leaves a bloodless and painless wound that the victim never feels. It is not fair -- where Franzen's characters real people -- to so completely penetrate their protective masks. But he does. And the reader benefits, joyously and most pleasurably.
Rating: 
Summary: Less Irony
Review: First, let me praise Franzen for what he does well. He is a very good observer of 21st century life. He is a very good stylist. And he can be funny and cute. But after a while, I got tired of funny and cute. I mean he just kept pouring it on--i.e. the dysfunctional American family and the myriad renderings of modern life's superficialities. My wish for Franzen, is that he take his very considerable stylistic talents, go underground, invest himself in a full-fledged middle age crisis, and emerge on the other side with a mature book that has less irony and more substance.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous! A Page Turner
Review: The Corrections was a wonderful 1st book of summer. It has everything, sex, drugs, and incontinence! At first, I wasn't sure where Franzen was going with the story, but by page 100, he has you hooked. It was a great read. I totally enjoyed it. And I recommend it to anyone with a family that is dysfunctional.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent, witty, compassionate and funny novel
Review: It's basically a story about a family. It's the story Alfred, an elderly man suffering from Parkinson's Disease and his wife Enid, and their children, Chip, Denise and Gary. Franzen captures the thoughts and feelings of his characters so breathtakingly, so realistically, that you can't help but be reeled into the story. His sense of humor, his ability to make each of the characters accessible to the reader, and his accuracy in the mental states he describes makes this one hell of a read. I haven't finished it yet, in fact I'm only half way through the book, but I recommend buying it. I'd like to get a copy of my own. I'll definitely read it again.
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