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Summary: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Review: This was a long, plodding depressing book -- not worthy of the time it took to read it. If the characters in the book have anything to do with the author's version of reality, humor or humanity -- as promised inside the book jacket ....certainly doesn't reflect the "soul" of America or American society. The book is an insult to Scandinavians.... I picked it up because the book received literary acclaim and the book lived up to it -- the writing was boring.
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Summary: Both funny and sad ... engrossing ... even profound!
Review: I liked this book and recommend it to anyone interested in families and interpersonal dynamics. The title says it all, as the book focuses on the characters' attempts to correct each other, themselves, and the mistakes of the previous generation. The character of Alfred is particularly interesting and complex -- he is at once pathetic, endearing, self-sacrificing, brilliant, courageous, and cruel. It is especially through Alfred that we see love's power and its mysterious capacity to remain unseen by others. This book makes profound observations about ways in which parents and children harm and help one another. I found the Internet and developing nation storyline boring; otherwise, this is an excellent read. Unsentimental yet touching, The Corrections is a sometimes funny and always honest look at today's dysfunctional family.
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Summary: Worth Reading
Review: Has The Corrections been overhyped? Probably. Is it worth reading? Definitely. If your taste in fiction runs to big, immensely readable books by writers like Michael Chabon, David Foster Wallace, John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Anne Tyler, and John Irving, you won't be dissapointed.
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Summary: Get serious drugs before starting this book
Review: I, like many others, thought that this book would be great. The cover (in this case you SHOULD NOT judge a book by) made me think that I was going to read something wholesome and heartwarming. NOT!!!! This book was too long, and too boring! I finished it last night and I am still depressed! I know that I could have writen a better book about my husbands family with my eyes closed! This family is awful. While reading you really want to find something/anything to like about them -- but you can't!!... This book is in terrible need of many many Corrections! Cutting down from 568 pages to half of that would be a great place to start! I'm sorry Oprah, I hated it!
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Summary: Brilliant
Review: Jonathan Franzen has captured the essence of family and suburban ennui with poignance, humor, and insight. This is a total delight -- easily one of the best books I've read all year.
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Summary: Best book read in years
Review: I myself being a product of the late 40's and 50's could identify with the characters in the book. The character study of individual family members was superb...psychological drivers affecting each characters behavior were well defined. I really felt like I knew each character by the end of the book. It was a pleasure to read. Descriptions were succinct and all characters knowable in all their humanity. Great book! Well worth reading.
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Summary: Like John Irving with a twist...
Review: After reading *The Corrections* with my on-line book group, the only word I could think of was wow. Wow, I finished this huge doorstop in less than a year. Wow, I've tackled one of the most difficult reads ever selected by Oprah. And wow, what a great book not to miss. The story of a dysfunctional family in the United States has been the subject of many novels published in the last twenty years. But few have gone this deep or even scratched the surface. John Irving may have a competitor in the contest for most quirky characters. The Lamberts are a middle class family with three grown children. Alfred, in his seventies and diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease, and Enid, obsessed with their children and finances, are living day-to-day and hoping to gather the family for Christmas. Their eldest son, Gary, can't do much more than irritate his anal wife, Caroline, and appease their three sons. The middle son, Chip, has lost his job teaching at a New England college and is working a potentially lucrative deal in Lithuania. And the youngest, Denise, may be a fabulous chef, but her scandalous love life puts one of our recent presidents to shame. Despite this great material, Franzen delves even deeper into the American culture and its obsession with miracle drugs, sex and money. Enjoyable at so many levels, I can't help but encourage readers to keep on chugging along with the novel. It's well worth the effort!
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Summary: A must-read for the whole dysfunctional family!
Review: Five hundred pages into the book I learned that my mom was on page 400! This to me is a great testament to the power of "The Corrections." Franzen deals with educated, amusing, often unhappy people who are fascinated equally by ideas and the promises of materialistic pleasures. In this respect the book reminded somewhat of Tom Wolfe's "Man in Full" and "Bonfire of the Vanities" and especially of Kurt Andersen's "Turn of the Century." But Franzen succeeds where Wolfe and Andersen fail because the humor that laces his pages and his references to pop culture are not there simply for Franzen to show off and get down with contemporary yuppie homies. Instead, he uses these devices to create an almost impressionistic version of life as we know it that is all the more real for being slightly loopy. Franzen's use of language is so vivid and interesting (and sometimes challenging, judging from some of the other reviews), and his wit is so keen, that one sometimes forgets the darkness of some of his themes, and the pain that all of his characters suffer. This gives the reader the experience of racing through the book for several hours with great enthusiasm, and then being himself suddenly feeling depressed -- and needing to take the night off. I think it would be great if everyone in the whole country read this book so that we can all engage on some level other than talking about "Survivor" or anthrax. Incidentally, my mom and I agree on the most evil character -- Gary's self-serving and sneaky wife Caroline! She's the grossest!
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Summary: The Great American Novel?
Review: Everyone is calling this the great American novel, but I think you can only comapre it to The Grapes of Wrath. It is NOT a feel good book. No one is happy (probably why I kept hearing how "real" it is) and even though the author tries to brighten it up at the end a little, the whole book is so depressing that it is too little too late. It is compelling, and I did have a hard time putting it down, but do not read this if you are looking for an uplifting story.
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Summary: Suffered through it
Review: Tragically hip and depressing. I kept reading because everyone is making such a fuss over this book. Am I missing something? The only good thing I can say about this book is that it ended.
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