The Corrections

Rating:
Summary: Please disregard other reviews
Review: This is no sweet family saga. Franzen has no interest in the heartwarming or the poignant. He is talking about what we as a nation have become. I realize that our country is currently suffering a mild case of the blues. We seek comfort because our daily lives are so uncomfortable and strange but Franzen's point seems to be that we have become a weird nation. We are disengaged from the people who gave birth to us and the people to whom we give birth. We relate in only the most oblique ways to one another. Yet we do try to connect and repeatedly fail because we have forgotten how those connections once fed us.

The Lamberts are coming apart at the seams. Dad suffers from Parkinson's and Mom wants one more family Christmas before the inevitable decline settles in. Son Chip is an academic star become washout. Daughter Denise has contorted her mother's dreams for her of domestic bliss into a failed marriage, a mysterious new relationship (or is it?) and the head chef position at Philly's new hot restaurant. And Gary, eldest son and financial success, is sinking under the weight of either all the things he has accrued or clinical depression. The details of the novel invade your mind and evoke everything about the people around you that you were too squeamish to note.

This is a depressing book if you are easily knocked off your pins but it is also darkly humorous (even hilarious in places) and really, really smart. I've seen the other reviews posted and some of them are terrible but this is a great book about the tough subject of what it means to be an American. I fear that Oprah has probably hoodwinked some readers by leading them to believe this is another Wally Lamb novel or an inspirational story of one woman's triumph over adversity. Get over yourself. This is a great nation and each and every one of us is tough enough to stand this hard look at what we have become.

Rating:
Summary: Should have been called "The Amazing Run-On Sentence"!
Review: There's an interesting story hiding somewhere in this book. Unfortunately, the 80 word sentences make finding it almost hopeless. Maddening to try and read: after a while, your eyes just scan the page to see if there are any periods!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Another Depressing Novel from Oprah
Review: I saw Franzon emblazoned on the cover of Poets and Writers, so I bought the book. They called it "THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL." They were kidding, but as postmodernists, they're allowed to kid when it comes to ripping you off.

The novel is depressing when not boring, and boring when not depressing. It starts nowhere, leaves you at the same place, and shows you nothing in-between.

If the literary crowd ever wonders why nobody reads, why novels have been relegated to the fringes of modern civilization, it is because the novel has been rendered irrelevant by the con-artists and talentless middlemen who run the contemporary publishing show.

It is complete waste of time and money, and yet one more product of the liberal hype machine.

I have no idea who reads this and enjoys it, and most of the positive reviews read as if the publicity department wrote them.

Read the classics, or the Bible, or check out Drake Raft for great modern literature.

Rating:
Summary: THE CORRECTIONS
Review: The book is beautifully written. However, as a 66 year old grandmother with many of the same problems I found it very sad and depressing. It just confirms that the problems of senior citizens and family relationship are becoming a sad fact of life. I wish he had been able to express all of the angst that this family goes through with a more upbeat turn of events. Also found the chapters with all the gobbly gook about ingredients for the "cure" totally unnecessary. When he wrote about the human relationships it was very touching.

I want to recommend this book to my senior bookclub, but I am reluctant to do so. I don't think they need to dwell on how we are disappointed by family. A truthful book, but sad.

Rating:
Summary: My review of The Corrections
Review: The Corrections takes a good hard look at the complex relationships within a family. Each member of The Lambert family has their own faults. The patriarch of the family is Alfred Lambert. He is a retired railroad engineer who works hard to support his family. However, Alfred doesn't show any affection toward any member of his family. Alfred emotionally distances himself from his family. This has an effect on everyone. Enid Lambert is his long suffering wife who is taken for granted in this book by her husband. Enid sacrifices his career as a book keeper to raise a family of 3 children Gary, Chip and Denise.

Alfred never praises his wife for a job well done. Enid practically raises their 3 children all by herself, because Alfred does not provide any emotional support for his children.
Enid becomes Al's care taker when his health declines. This becomes a burden for her which doesn't sit well with her children especially Gary.

At the beginning of his father's illness, Gary urges that Al should be placed in a care home. This would relieve Enid of her obligation to care for him. This is a major issue in this book and society today about who should take of the elderly when they get sick.

Gary is a depressed family man who is unable to express his feelings. Gary is incapable of showing warmth and detaches himself from everybody. This is a trait that he obviously inherited from his father He fights with his wife over meaningless things not telling the truth about how she hurt herself. He is bitter towards his parents especially his mother for telling him how to run his life particularly how to raise his kids.

Chip is a former college professor who loses his job after an
affair with a student. Chip feels his parents don't approve of his life or his job. To Chip, Alfred's lack of affection toward him as a child solidifies Chip's belief that Al never loved or understood him.

Denise is a successful cook who happens to be a lesbian. Denise's shortcoming is her failure to be honest with herself about her sexual orientation. This leads to the breakdown of her relationship with her boss and her bosses wife. She has an intimate relationship with both of them. Denise is almost the mirror image of her mother in the sense that she feels obligated to take on a lot of a responsibility and is put upon by other people.

This book is a good escape for people who perceive their problems and relationships to be too great or stressful. I enjoyed reading The Corrections.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated and Arrogant
Review: Boring, disappointing, absolutely mindnumbing- this book is one of the most overrated tomes in recent memory. The temptation to put it in the giveaway pile without finishing it was great, but I resisted, thinking it was going to improve. It didn't-and his arrogrance shone through on every page
I am not sure what reviewers saw in this muddled piece of material, and I would not recommend it for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read in years
Review: I picked this book up at the recommendation of several critics I trust, which means that I had high expectations. I'm glad to say that my expectations were surpassed by this distressingly lovable novel that draws on the mundane and ordinary to weave its story. The characters seem real to me -- far more real than any of the fiction I've read in recent years, fiction that seems to take place in irrelevant time periods and backwater locales more often than not. Each character in Franzen's exceptional novel, from the materialistic oldest sibling to the pathetically self destructing middle child to the disappointed and vaguely stupid mother, reminded me of someone I know. Or, better yet, reminded me of myself. This honest piece of observational literature eschews straight satire in favor of a more rueful tone; the comedy comes less from the words on the page than from the feelings (and recognition) they inspire. Franzen's language and diction only make the read more rewarding. I cannot recommend this book more highly. It won't be a classic, however. It should be read now, laughed at now, and enjoyed from cover to cover now. (And don't let Oprah's endorsement sway you. This is actually an exceptional piece of writing.) The Corrections is easily the best book I've read in years.

Rating:
Summary: OH MY GOSH!!!
Review: I'm sorry, but Oprah had it way off on this one! Reading this book was like going to see a bad movie, but you can't get up to leave; you just keep telling yourself "It's going to get better!"! I wasted entirely too much time trying to figure out what the heck this book was all about. Now that I'm finished with the book, I'm still asking myself that same question. I was expecting a truthful, but yet, humorous book about the American family. Didn't find it here!

Rating:
Summary: WAY TOO LONG for what it is!!
Review: Really too bad. I was looking forward to reading this book way before Oprah recommended it. The stuff with Chip should have been condensed into a few paragraphs. He wasn't that interesting of a person anyway. The book wore me out and depressed me. So they had a bad childhood, who didn't. I have seen too many married couples like Al and Enid so that was the good part of the story. I just have to say I do not recommend this book at all. I finished it but felt awful afterward. I must add I will never read another book by an author who is so very stuck on himself. After the rude things he has said about Oprah he should be ashamed. I do not read books because she has recommend them. But he should be glad that she caused a lot of people to buy this book before word got around as to how bad it really is. Because then he wouldn't have sold any.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Character Development
Review: For me, the strength of a novel lies in how well the characters are developed. In "The Corrections", Jonathan Franzen has it mastered.I can't say I identify with Chip, Gary, or Denise, because I come from a different culture being a 40 something Black female, but Franzen does help me to see the roots of some of their dysfunction.By describing their midwestern home life so skillfully, he helps me to understand some of where Chips failures, Gary's materialistic outlook, and Denise's sexual crisis come from. Enid's struggles on the other hand, hit home for me. I could relate to her feelings for her children-love, pride,disappointment and finally acceptance-and to the painful mixed feelings she had for Alfred as he battled Parkinsons.I found the ending showing Enid's growth, revelations about her family and outlook for the future to be very positive. This is a great novel.