Rating: 
Summary: It Glows
Review: It glows... Franzen's novel actually emits a warm glow. I am struck by this wonderful and dare I say, important work. So many themes are delicately covered(cornered) all revolving centrally around family. The novel is an act of unwinding the tight, prison-like familial constructs of the past(mistakes or not... lovely ambiguity is the key), while each member of the nuclear unit that is the Lamberts embodies their own slew of entanglements, dramas, tragic sparks of disorder and glee. These swirling themes include contradictions in academia, issues of acceptance, lust v. intellect, rash passion, passionlessness, image, materialism, American ideals v. the reality of their achievement, sexuality, morality, political consciousness v. action, the malleable fluid self, the obstinate and static self, death, the stock market, and (there are more but this is no dissertation), of course, corrections(in the economy, yes, but more specifically, the corrections we make in ourselves and in our lives... our responses and reactions to our upbringings and relationships and hopes and failures). Though The Corrections centers around our white, middle class, Midwestern Lamberts, the distilled themes of their story are wholly universal, a sober, inspiring, fully creative work. All the while it's a sincere rendering of a distinct American experience. The meticulous plotting is deceptively fluid(not linear, but ingeniously pieced, like the chronology is fixed to a slightly erratic pendulum), each member of the family appropriately developed, the past emerges like paint from a brush adding color and depth to these characters so fashioned with love, I found it hard not to weep on many occasions. I wept for their humanity, their confusing life struggles, their collapsing rationales, their attempts towards doing good, living right(whatever right is), and their noble failures and self-deceptions. Franzen does all this without the slightest hint of condescension, he lays it all out there, with a brave honesty and says many things I'm sure many people don't want to hear about life and dreams in this country, this world. All this in a prose that is brisk and at times dizzyingly, beautifully, poetic. My only complaint about the book is the pain in my lower back incurred from the long stretches of ill-postured reading that I spent enraptured and moved and humbled and inspired by this, like I've already said, this bold, glowing work.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising but average for the sheer effort...
Review: This book is the literary analog of the "Visible Human" website where you can look at the 1mm slices of a former death-row inmate. Only in this case we have the flayed remains of a midwest family spread before us in all their pathetic glory. And that, really, is the crux of it - there's little to redeem any of the characters other than the chance of death at the end of all the groping in the dark. Franzen must have a long list pet peeves or perhaps just a very dark history to have produced such a hopeless account of modern middle-class life in North America. The story is told in standard (for this era, anyway) non-linear fashion with many hisorical moments segued into as the climax, a "final Christmas family gathering" is approached. We are treated to all of the (mostly depraved) details for the family as the dysfunctionally attempt to work through the anguish of their father's impending descent into dementia. And what stories there are...Yes, if you stick with the book there is everything here from amourous encounters with sofas, talking turds, complex psychological manoevering between a couple and the cheating of one character with both halves of another couple. As I stated above, if Franzen's therapist thought a book would help his problems I think he might be in need of stronger medication. One wonders not only why the reader is subjected to some events but also how Franzen simply thought the events up. Long-winded, rambling, poignant in tiny glimpses and mostly navel-gazing. The typical American novel and likely to upset most and impress a few. I would have been impressed if the story could have been captured in less than half the paper but perhaps there is hope in future books.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm still depressed - weeks after reading this!!
Review: I'll make this short and sweet (bittersweet). Mr. Franzen is very talented in his descriptions of people, places and things. However -- this book has no soul, there wasn't a character I cared about, even though I tried and tried and tried!
Rating:
Summary: Why I didn't get past page 120.
Review: I tried, honestly I tried but it's just this book didn't have a few of the things I like when I read a novel. First of all a character with a redeemable quality is essential. All the characters here are dominated by their weakness be it laziness, vengeance, stupidity or an illness such as senility. The plot also needs to be believable and the main character Chip's (yes his name is Chip) decline in the early parts seems to have no reason and there is just no element of reality about it. Besides the fact he is so disgusting, selfish and pathetic. The dysfunctional family has been done to death and there is nothing original here - the obsessed mother who can't come to terms with chil's career path, the dropout academic no hoper who just wants to be a writer etc etc. Finally the writing needs to be good and I've got say Franzen has a superb command of the English language. Yet the two page paragraphs tested me out and the pretentious rambling to describe situations had me skipping large sections after about page 80. I'm Australian so perhaps the description of the American condition just didn't speak to me, but I have read Joseph Heller's 'Good as Gold', which this reminded me of in terms of the family centred plot, and found it funny, poignant and meaningful. 'The Corrections' was sordid, unreal and pretentious. In the end I ditched it for Ali G's new book, a fictitious person, who managed to make more sense. In the words of Ali G Franzen forgot to "Keep it Real". PS: I gave him an extra star for his thesaurus like use of unusual words.
Rating: 
Summary: The Emperor Has No Clothes
Review: Jonathan Franzen and The New York Times Magazine announced before this book was published that it was going to be the Great American Novel. Well, it's not. What it is is boring, populated with dislikeable characters who behave inconsistently with how they were decribed (in excruciatingly uninteresting detail) just pages previously. This is one of the greatest scams in publishing. We should all hire Franzen's PR person.
Rating:
Summary: A Good American Novel, Not The Great American Novel
Review: It is unfortunate when a book receives as many accolades as The Corrections because it tends to set readers up for disappointment. I had hoped to find a moving, thought-provoking story. Instead, I found characters who were unsympathetic and, to echo another reader's review, I did not really care what happened to them. I feel the author relied too much on stereotypes to flesh out his characters: distant father; needy mother; self-absorbed eldest child; a token amorous academic; floundering youngest child. The Corrections is undeniably well written, even beautifully written in parts, and was interesting enough to hold my attention. But is it the latest Great American Novel? I honestly don't think so.
Rating:
Summary: Needs Some
Review: I did finish this rather overlong equally overwritten family epic. Yes,Franzen can write. However,he rambles on too much, The "talking turd" hallucations experienced by the family patriach being an example of a rather funny concept milked dry. I mean,it was at least 10 pages too long! Also,none of the family,with the exception of Enid, was(to borrow from the author) really,really,really all that likeable. They all came across as rather self-absorbed and annoying. I, personally, didn't get much out of this book,but others might. So again,don't be put off by my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: I don't think Mr. Franzen has to worry...
Review: ...about being too much of a commercial success. I'm not interested in even picking up another of his books, let alone purchasing it. I have never in my life read anything so self-consciously literary and affected. The characters are not good, and the events so far from real life that I find it difficult to believe Mr. Franzen actually lives on this planet. Also, what is with the frequent use of just a letter and a blank line (D______ etc.) to denote colleges, rivers, and so forth? Yes, I know that Edgar Allan Poe and his contemporaries were fond of this conceit, but really! It just serves to pull the reader out of the (admittedly uncompelling) story line. Either you're trying to make up a plausible name to use when he does this, or you'rethinking, "Good grief; that's really annoying." Plus there's his brilliant use of the word "corrections" over and over again. Wow.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed!!
Review: My mom and I usually have similar tastes so when she told me about this book and that it was supposed to be good I ordered it as soon as I could. I'm totally disappointed and I know she will be too. Who edited this book? Long drawn on sentences and while I can handle big words this book is a stumbling block. To me it is a total waste of time and money. But I am going to read the whole book if I possibly can - I love a challenge. But I would advise reading a few pages before you buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Who Needs Correcting?
Review: The Corrections is indeed a powerful novel of family, relationships, disfunction, and discontent. There is also humor, if sometimes, black humor, and there are realistic situations that almost any family can identify with. Is it a good read? Yes and no. On many levels, The Corrections makes us think about our lives and the individual family relationships that haunt and please every family. The characters focus blame on each other and on family dynamics, and take sides for and against each other in a complicated and often sad set of situations that each is hard put to escape.
Brother Gary is the methodical and practical achiever who views the shortcomings of his siblings and parents with a critical eye that reveals his assumed superiority as well as his fear of dealing with any of their problems, not to mention his own. Chip, the more loveable middle child, banks on his intelligence to get him through in a career that has not been successful, but who in the end, becomes the rock for the others. And Denise, the only sister, who tries to do the right things, seems to constantly mess up her personal life.
Add to this, Enid and Albert, aging parents who have years of unhappy history and blame against each other as well as against their children. It is Enid who feels that "corrections" are in order, mainly for poor ailing Albert, but also for each child who has brought various disappointments and embarrassments to her life.
This is not a happy book or even one that has a redemptive ending. There is really no reconciling or healing among the family members who continue their lives on more or less the same plane with no hope or evidence that they will ever change.
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