What: The Corrections
Who: Jonathan Franzen
Where: Borrowed from the library but was recently led to Franzen’s literary splendor through the Morning News Tournament of Books and after reading his much heralded (or despised) book of 2010, Freedom.
As far as readers go, I would consider myself pretty unbiased. I don’t read only women writers. I don’t read only mystery, romance, or classics. I don’t just read biographies or books about war, time travel, or Snookie. For me, reading is like going to The Old Country Buffet. With so many options, why would I strictly stick to just the salad bar? Or for that matter, the section with over cooked and fairly processed questionable meat products? I fill up my plate with as much as I can stand, devour it all, and then I am back for more.
While we're on the topic of questionable meat products, I’ve recently been introduced (by way of the Tournament of Books) and now have read my fair share of books about egotistical, flawed men otherwise known as WMFUN or White Male Fuck Up Novels. The tournament featured many of these books, for no specific reason, and it got me thinking. In many cases, what else are gifted male writers supposed to write about? There’s that saying familiar to anyone who has taken a creative writing class; write what you know. Well if this rings for true for Jonathan Franzen, man did this guy major in Fucked Up-ology.
I’ve seen on many a review that people consider Freedom a near sequel to The Corrections, and in many ways I would agree. The story centers on a dysfunctional Midwestern family, The Lamberts, and chronologically shifts faster than Doc Brown in a Dolorian. We get to see each of the main characters through several different parts of their life. This device works great for Franzen, as it allows the reader to see where and when each character began their path to fucked up-ness. The patriarch and who one could argue is to blame for his families utter demise, is Alfred. His wife Enid, is your typical mid-western, rose colored glasses wearer, constantly nagging her husband and children till they submit. She reminded me of George Constanza’s mother. Their three children Gary, Chip, and Denise have moved out long ago, optimistically searching for less fucked up lives in Philadelphia and New York. The novel takes the reader on a ride through each of these characters zany lives (which includes but is not limited to the following topics; cruises, bisexual love affairs, hallucinations involving feces, mind alternating drugs, a bi-sexual love triangle, student/teacher affairs, and a trip to war-torn Lithuania) and by the end you realize that The Lamberts, probably like most families out there, are way beyond correction; they are just too flawed. Yet, would anyone want a perfect family, who were not in need of corrections? Wouldn’t that be…..boring??
I try not to read too far into titles when I am reading books, but Franzen’s give clear messages on what he wants to say. Much like in Freedom, the interpretation of The Corrections is multi-layered, built over time and in detail in over 500 plus pages. He creates an interesting alternate reality full of characters that are quick as whips but with a moral compass pointing due south of asshole. While Franzen includes women in his surveys of messed up lives, it is by far his male characters who take center stage and I would largely say make the worst decisions. His cleverness is entirely entertaining but his books leave me with a hollow feeling of dread. For his fucked up characters and the fate of man-kind. “Do people really live this way?” I ask myself. But does this even matter? No one watches The Jersey Shore because they work at a lame T-shirt shop and are model citizens! Being fucked up is interesting! Fucked up is funny! My new favorite word is schadenfreude or as Herr Webster defines it, “pleasure derived from the misfortune of others.” Maybe that really explains the success of such WMFUN. It’s far more enjoyable to read about others fucked up lives, when we all know we’re probably just about as messed up as the Lambert’s in our own special way.
Grade: A minus---Another example of Franzen’s mad skills but I hate when you start seeing patterns in writing, even if it all works.
For more on WMFUN, check out this lively discourse on The Morning News.
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