This book has been much talked about in the past few weeks. The New York Times has reviewed and mentioned it several times and authors such as Jodi Picoult have criticized the newspaper for giving so much attention to this one particular (male) writer. The popularity and 'hotness' of the book seemed to reach a frenzy when Obama was photographed coming out of a book store on Martha's Vineyard with a copy under his arm... 2 weeks before it's publication date!
So as a big fan of Franzen's last book "Corrections" written about 9 years ago I was anxious to read this one. He is nothing less than genius at getting deep into the minds and psyches of 'average' middle class families, who of course are completely disfunctional on many levels. This is the story of Patty and Walter, who met in college. She was a basketball star chasing after Walter's roomate, a guitar playing womanizer who threw her aside so that she could fall into sweet Walter's arms.
The story of their marriage is the story of this book. The characters are beautifully developed. Their friend Richard (guitar player) who Patty never quite gets over, son Joey and daughter Jessica are characters who we are bound to care about and live through years of pain with, all in one brilliantly written novel. Franzen has a talent for developing his characters, for good or bad, so that you care for them and want to know what kind of people they will become when the story ends.
This was a looong one to read in a week... 560 pages.. but well well worth the effort. Definitely on my list of one of the year's best (so far!)
I'm just in the middle of reading "Freedom" - I didn't know about Obama, but I loved "Corrections". So far, I'm most fascinated by Patty's character and how she uses every single one of Freud's defense mechanisms to survive.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see how the whole thing ends though, because right now, it seems like all 3 main characters do an awful lot of self analysis for people who behave like they all do - the self absorbed rock star, the selfless devoted always forgiving husband, and the repressed housewife.
I finished Freedom a couple of weeks ago and you are definitely right, Lucy. I was surprised at how much I cared about what happened to them at the end of the book. However, I like to think of myself as pretty liberal and open minded, but did he really need to include some of that sex stuff? I mean, did all of the anal references really add that much to the story? Maybe it just went over my head, but it bothered me.
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