i was ready for this book to end around page 300. it's not that i didn't like it, but this novel went in so many directions, that i often got frustrated and fed-up.
at its core, "the corrections" is about the lambert family. there's the neurotic and over-bearing matriarch, enid, and her quickly deteriorating husband, alfred. there's their eldest child, gary; a privileged, yet clinically depressed suburbanite with a beautiful wife and three of his own boys. the middle child, chip, a former university professor fired for having an affair with a student, and denise, the youngest, a chef with her own restaurant and oodles of her own romantic problems. the characters and dynamic reminded me a lot of douglas coupland, though less extreme.
the book mostly consists of very large chunks about each character that often veer off into other large chunks about secondary characters with enough back story to form their own novels. at one point, enid and alfred take a cruise and there's a 20 page account from a women enid meets. at another point, chip goes to lithuania and there's 30 pages of how the country is falling apart and how such-and-such unpronounceable eastern european name is at war with another unpronounceable eastern european name and it became easy to stop paying attention and gloss over the words.
despite my many frustrations with this novel, franzen should be complimented for his vivid and unique descriptions, often hilarious situations and deeply moving account of a dysfunctional family
at its core, "the corrections" is about the lambert family. there's the neurotic and over-bearing matriarch, enid, and her quickly deteriorating husband, alfred. there's their eldest child, gary; a privileged, yet clinically depressed suburbanite with a beautiful wife and three of his own boys. the middle child, chip, a former university professor fired for having an affair with a student, and denise, the youngest, a chef with her own restaurant and oodles of her own romantic problems. the characters and dynamic reminded me a lot of douglas coupland, though less extreme.
the book mostly consists of very large chunks about each character that often veer off into other large chunks about secondary characters with enough back story to form their own novels. at one point, enid and alfred take a cruise and there's a 20 page account from a women enid meets. at another point, chip goes to lithuania and there's 30 pages of how the country is falling apart and how such-and-such unpronounceable eastern european name is at war with another unpronounceable eastern european name and it became easy to stop paying attention and gloss over the words.
despite my many frustrations with this novel, franzen should be complimented for his vivid and unique descriptions, often hilarious situations and deeply moving account of a dysfunctional family
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