Rating: 
Summary: yes, it was an oprah book, after all
Review: Franzen's self-created little tempest in a teapot over having his book selected for Oprah's book club just goes to show how unaware he really is. His book fits Oprah's template perfectly... contemporary disjointed and dysfunctional family members blunder through depressing scenarios with no redemption in sight. I found this gloomy, disgusting, and preciously self-aware by turns, and all of it turned my stomach. If I want to learn about a dysfunctional family, I'll look at my own, thank you very much.
Rating: 
Summary: Better Than I Expected
Review: I was leery about reading this book and only read it because our book club chose it. We did it reluctantly because of all the hype surrounding it. Most people whom I knew had read it, didn't really like it because it's not really what you would call a happy book. They found it depressing, frustrating and somewhat of a turnoff. Yet, one doesn't win National Book Awards for poor writing. It ends up that I liked it. Though it's not a "feel good" book, it is a book about real people. One doesn't really fall in love with any one character. They are all flawed and have made some very bad decisions. Yet, if you look around, that's true of just about everyone you meet...including yourself. It is hard work to get through the book because of all the issues involved---and it is almost 600 pages long. However, like Kavalier and Clay, it is so well-written that one doesn't mind. If you know anyone suffering from Parkinson's Disease you will be amazed and saddened at how well Franzen writes what it feels like to watch yourself deteriorate. He also does a great job in relaying how those closest to you are affected. Like them or not, I didn't think the characters were all that impossible to believe. In my view, Franzen takes each of their situations and makes them so that you can actually see how they would get themselves in the situations they did. Even if you wouldn't get yourself into some of these jams, you can see how someone else could. It's not all that farfetched. I thought the ending was superbly written. There are no heroes in this book, just regular people dealing with their problems as best they know how to.
Rating: 
Summary: Spectacular Family Saga
Review: The Corrections, last year's It Book, turns out to even better than its hype would indicate. Scathing, disturbing, deeply felt, and laugh out loud funny (sometimes all one page), this novel manages to capture a very particular point in time (America at the end of the boom) while feeling generously and effortlessly universal. Each of the characters is painfully sympathetic and completely infuriating in turn, their mental landscapes sometimes nightmarish but always compelling and occasionally, naggingly, familiar. Franzen repeatedly turns the remarkable tonal trick of juggling powerfully emotional scenes with those of near farce. Wonderful set pieces abound, begging to read aloud: Chip's swordfish, Gary at the IPO, anything on the cruise. And just when you think the book too rich to be brought to any kind of satisfying conclusion, Franzen pulls off a lovely, low-key finish that carries his wide-ranging story to a graceful close.
Rating:
Summary: A book well worth reading
Review: I'm often a contrary person, and when I read a lot of hype about a particular book, I tend to shy away from it. That is what I did with this book until my son, whose degree in English gives him a lot of credibility with me, highly recommended that I read it. I purchased it the next day, practically devoured it in a few days, and must confess that I loved it tremendously! This is an extremely well-written book, sly and mischievious, but also heartwarming and poignant. It's as if the author had been looking into a lot of his neighbors' windows, or seeing deeply into their hearts and souls. It's a book that's so true to life that it's almost scary in its reality. Once in a while, while I was reading and came upon a particularly cogent part that seemed so like my own family's life, I looked around to see if there were any hidden cameras in the house, with tape polayers taking down the every day dialogue. I don't often do this, but I could just imagine Peter Boyle playing the father of this clan, and that image stuck with me throughout the reading of the book. I say: ignore the hype and read the book on your own terms. It's excellent, and you will not regret it!
Rating:
Summary: A fabulous read.
Review: I am a complete literary snob, and I rarely read anything modern. However, I was interested in the controversy surrounding The Corrections (in some ways, I don't think it was an accident on Franzen's part...he's the first name you think of when you hear "Oprah's Book Club" - and *then* you think of Toni Morrison). When I actually picked up the book and saw the award nominations, I bought it.
I was *not* disappointed. I am usually very critical of any form of modern literature. This was excellent. From the opening chapter, where you can feel the pulsing alarms of anxiety, to the last moment where you can feel Enid begin to breathe deeply again, you are engrossed in Franzen's world. Like a more feasible "Royal Tenenbaums," each member of the family has something loveable and loathesome in their character.
Unlike most authors, who simply state that a character is the way he is, Franzen paints a Dali-Meets-Rockwell tableau of the person's childhood, so you *know* why they are the way they are.
My only critisisms for this book are fairly grave, but do not detract too much from the book's quality. First of all, there are too many characters. Not all of the children are perfectly developed, but between his friend, her friend, her friend's friend, her ex husband's friend, and then the gigantic list of people who are on the cruise and tell you their heart wrenching life story, but you never hear from again, and all of Enid's community friends, you practically need a LIST. I felt that this could have been controlled. I found myself getting 100 pages away from a scene, and seeing a name again, and going, "Who?"
Second, it is doubtful that Parkinsons would progress so much within the scope of under a year.
Third, the Lithuanian thing was a bit much.
Otherwise, this was a well crafted, interesting, and excellent in length and scope. It was a healthy 560+ pages, and full of well turned phrases (think words from the mouth of Steinbeck and Dennis Miller's love baby) and vivid pictures. His specific knowledge of certain things made the story very good. The new restaurant, particularily, showed that he at least read "Kitchen Confidential" by Bourdain in preparation.
All in all, a good show. Recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Just put it down.
Review: I've made it to page 316. Three hundred and sixteen agonising pages of family angst and a deluge of masturbatory red herrings later, I've decided to just put it down. The two stars are for actually getting me to read this far. There may be some merit in that, but that's about it.
Rating:
Summary: BookLover
Review: I thought this book had potential at first because some of his writing is very intelligent. Other than hitting dead-on areas of real life that most avoid mentioning, it was boring and pointless.
Rating:
Summary: The Corrections
Review: Franzen is obviously talented, ambitious, and far-reaching in this much discussed, too hyped novel. His reach, however, is faulty, but it's worth the read to see how faulty and to see what dubious fiction gets published these days. The book is flawed because Franzen essentially dislikes all his characters except possibly the bisexual daughter. He certainly is no profound examiner of the "American soul," to paraphrase one favorable critic. Instead, Franzen has trapped himself between a cynical impulse and a tragi-comic one. His description of typical Midwesterners with "bratwurst fingers" is heavy-handed satire, suggesting a disturbing prejudice shown in his portrayals of some other characters and situations European and European-American. Finally, his ending is forced, unconvincing, and lays much of the dysfunctional blame on the dead father. The sins of the father visited upon...Yawn!
Rating:
Summary: Stick out the first 200 pp
Review: I spent the first third of the novel wondering what all the hype could possibly be about. The characters seemed like glib caricatures, the plot an irritatingly familiar slapstick routine... I stuck with it only because a woman two seats away from me on a cross-country flight assured me it would get better. She was right--things really start to gel after 150, 200 pages, and the book gets high larious. Great characters, deft plot, nice tone. Even the apparent shortcomings of the first section retroactively demonstrate their necessity (or have it demonstrated for them). My only complaint is that stylistically, Franzen sometimes lays it on a little thick. You want to tell him, Hey, relax--we know you're a clever, observant guy; no need to prove it with every single clause! (On the other hand, he really is clever and observant, so at least his verbal pyrotechnics are the real thing.) Jonathan Franzen, you're not such a bad guy!
Rating: 
Summary: A Correction Re Philly
Review: Since everyone has said virtually eveything that can be said about this book via all these reviews, I've got a correction I wish to make re the perspective you will get about the city of Philadelphia from this author/book. In short, he trashes the city several times in several ways throughout the novel. In my opinion, as someone who has been there many times for many reasons, Philadelphia is a great destination. Franzen's idea of Philly is "dismal," as he writes -- lacking beauty, style, etc. Franzen is wrong and I can only hope that those of you who travel there enjoy all that Philly offers.
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