Rating: 
Summary: The Family Redux
Review: Never has an author captured a microcosm of American Family Life as Jonathon Franzen has done in The Corrections. His crisp, biting narrative describes every character superbly from the stoic,now diseased father and husband, Al, his wife, the holiday family glue, Enid, the dutiful son Gary, his under-achieving, down on his luck brother, Chip and finally the Restuarantuer, Denise, their sensual and lustful sister who finds that her recipe for life is the very same variety that adorns her avant garde menu. The supporting cast is interwoven expertly so as to season an already tasty fare that includes greed, dishonesty, sexual passion, jealousy, anger, fear, blame, pettiness, self-doubt, compulsion, depression, but also love, compassion, creativity and finally redemption and self-actualization. As in life, the family members find support and compassion from those thought least likely and are let-down by those they were counting on. Franzen goes where no one has gone before with the modern American Family.
Rating:
Summary: Exquisitely painful
Review: Who is this Franzen guy and how did he meet my parents? It is a long book but I wanted more. Believe me there are fathers like Al out there and his character gave me a new perspective on my own father's quiet, stern, lack of emotional involvement. As I plod through middle age I seem to be acquiring that same detachment. The final section was a wake-up call. For some (probably male boomers) Franzen's story should be studied. Parts may border on the absurd, but the overall effect is profound, disturbing, and ultimately redeeming.
Rating:
Summary: Yes it's wordy, and yes Franzen was a snob about Oprah, but
Review: still, his book is great. I was recently given it when I arrived in New York for a super busy work trip, and I managed to finish the whole thing, delaying work matters so I could sit in the hotel bar and gobble up the book.
The interesting thing about this book is that it succeeds despite several flaws. Franzen is a bit too descriptive, at times seems a bit too impressed with his own intellect, and a bit too untrusting of his reader's abilities to "get it" that he sometimes spells it out beyond what is needed. Personally, I can't imagine why any writer would object to any reader, highbrow or low, reading his work, so I thought it was stupid that he ridiculed Oprah. (And by the way, the book is quite accessible to anyone who can read. It is just a regular story, with exceptionally drawn characters -- but not hard to follow).
The point is, that while so many contemporary novels are so light and airy that they make almost no impression, Franzen has managed to create a story with at least five complex characters who are shown for all their humanity, so that even if you hate them, you understand them, and maybe even sympathize with them. It keeps you going. It may not be going too far to call this a modern day War and Peace, which, by the way, has many of its own flaws.
And, Franzen can be funny too. Look for the stolen Salmon scene. Hilarious.
What can I say? I didn't want to like this book. But after reading it I find it impossible to give it anything less than five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down.
Review: This is a powerful book. The characters are well thought out and
the situations that they found themsleves in were interesting and
for the most part very believable. I found myself relating to some of the situations to the point of discomfort eg. a scene at the dinner table where Chip had a plate of (now cold) liver and rutabagas in front of him hours after everyone else had left the table. The relationships of all the family members were beautifully written about and it was easy for me to sympathize with all of the family and understand their reactions to the events that happened in their lives. The end of the book moved me to tears on several occasions. I am anxious to see what Franzen will write next. He is a wonderful author. The book was full of detail and the family members were very true to life.
It seems that Mr Franzen has a wonderful intuition about life in this decade and the way our culture plays out in our family lives and the way that we relate to each other and the world around us.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and important novel
Review: This is one of the best novels I have ever read. I really can't fathom the 1-star reviews, except to think that Enid Lambert (the mother in the book) wouldn't have liked it either! Some of the 1-star reviewers are comparing it to Taylor Caldwell and TOm Clancy, so.The Corrections combines the social criticism of Don DeLillo (it reminded me strongly of White Noise at times) with a very human, character-driven storyline that is reminiscent perhaps of Anne Tyler or Ann Beattie. It is a novel of ideas hidden in a story about a family. Every character will drive you crazy, and yet each is entirely sympathetic. The Lamberts are rich, multi-dimensional characters. I feel that I know them all well. The book is sad yet not depressing (in my opinion). It can serve as a warning to readers -- of what kind of relationships NOT to produce -- with one's family, partners, possessions, money, ideas... One thing that disappointed me about the book was the Pynchonesque conspiracy that seemed to be developing around the Axon Corporation -- they bought Chip's father's patent, their law firm employed Chip, the parents of the young woman who destroyed his career ran a mutual fund that was the only source of information on the web about Axon's process, he was referred to the law firm by Eden's husband, who talked obliquely about the company in the hilarious fish-in-the-pants scene...why all these connections? They were obviously intentional, yet I never saw the conspiracy revealed. Just coincidence? Or am I missing something. In any event, a wonderful and important novel.
Rating:
Summary: Still can't believe it . . .
Review: I don't care who you are--read this book. Just read it. At first, I resisted it, too... But finally I picked up the book. And this is truly a fine, fine novel. Is it The Great American Novel? I don't know, but Franzen has covered this time of trauma within our own families AND international terrorism with some fine prose and great storytelling that I have not seen in a very long time. He surprises me literally on every page. I feel my jaw drop, my eyes tear up, my mouth widen in a grin, and I so appreciate his beautiful words. I am somewhat less appreciative that he has somehow found a way to put every one of my family members and friends into this supposed work of fiction, even though I am sure Mr. Franzen and I have never met. However, he does mention Little Rock with some degree of authority throughout this book, so perhaps . . . .
Anyway--read the book. It is not to be missed, and once you begin it, its regular surprises will not allow you to put it down. Thank you, Mr. Franzen, you have made reading modern fiction enjoyable again.
Rating: 
Summary: they give awards to anybody these days
Review: i made it to 200 hundred pages and stopped. i'm also a writer and i found that the book was sucking the life out of me. the characters are tedious and so is each of their situations. if this is the kind of ... they give awards to, count me out. and to think that some thick-skulled academics think that steinbeck isn't important because he's too easy to read. go figure. i'm going back to my number one rule which i violated to my chagrin. don't buy any modern novel thicker than one inch. if the writer can't say it in an inch, he's got nothing to say.
Rating: 
Summary: What's the big deal ?
Review: I was disappointed with The Corrections. Maybe it was the hype, or all the advance press about how brilliant the book was going to be, but it seemed unfocused to me. There were characters that seemed lost or missplaced, as if they had hoped to get a short story or novel to themselves, and instead got crammed in with everyone else. This is supposed to be a story about a family, but there was so little about the family as a group, that I never really understood the bitterness some of the characters felt. I'd say that all in all, this could have made a fine long short story, novella, or short novel. There was too much stuff packed in there, as if Franzen thought that the length of the book would add credibility. It was a story told without much sensitivity, pathos, appreciation for suffering....rather cold and self-indulgent. I'd rather read Alice Munro.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable mediocrity
Review: That the Lamberts aren't terribly unique, that they're only a mildly dysfunctional family, that they aren't particularly likeable IS THE POINT. Most of the negative reviews here have revolved, in some way or another, around the above observations (in addition to Franzen's uniquely descriptive prose) but IMO all of the reasons invoked for hating THE CORRECTIONS are what make it such a good book. After all, aren't most of us just rodents in a cage, blindly spinning our middle-American hamster wheels, chasing transcendence that few ever achieve? If we are willing to admit such a thing, doesn't this novel distill our lives to this point of truth with unnerving clarity? Is that why so many readers here hate it? Because it identifies the cold reality of our lives instead of warming the heart with Chicken Soup for the Weak Minded?
Rating:
Summary: Hated It...So Much
Review: I hated this book so much I did something with it I've done with no other book...I threw it away. The writing was okay, nothing special, but no glaring faults, either...but the subject matter was so ridiculous the book would have been far better had it been written as a parody, rather than as a slice of (American) life. Unfortunately, The Corrections isn't a parody; it's meant to be taken as a serious commentary on American family life today. In my opinion, at least, this book fails and fails miserably. The characters aren't even good cardboard cutouts. They have absolutely no depth, no motivation and no redeeming qualities. At the very best, they resemble silly cliches...harmless but stupid. Even their problems (and the so-called solutions to these problems) are cliches. I found it impossible to care about the characters in this book and was even able to anticipate what overworked move would come next. Most families seem to be dysfunctional to some degree but no family I've ever met is as totally dysfunctional as the one portrayed in The Corrections. This is partly why they seemed so buffoonish, yet even this wouldn't have mattered so much had they been even the slightest bit interesting. The trouble was...they weren't. There are so many good books out there to read...more than anyone will ever have time for. Don't waste your time with this one.
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