United States
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The Corrections: A Novel
#1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER
"A spellbinding novel" (People) from the New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections is a comic, tragic epic of worlds colliding: an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions, a new world of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental health care, and globalized greed.
After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives.
The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself that, despite certain alarming indicators, he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man―or so her mother fears.
Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER
"A spellbinding novel" (People) from the New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections is a comic, tragic epic of worlds colliding: an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions, a new world of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental health care, and globalized greed.
After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives.
The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself that, despite certain alarming indicators, he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man―or so her mother fears.
Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
Editorial Reviews
"You will laugh, wince, groan, weep, leave the table and maybe the country, promise never to go home again, and be reminded of why you read serious fiction in the first place." ―The New York Review of Books
"Marvelous . . . Everything we want in a novel--except, when it's rocking along, for it never to be over." ―The New York Times Book Review
"Jonathan Franzen has built a powerful novel out of the swarming consciousness of a marriage, a family, a whole culture--our culture." ―Don DeLillo
"Looms as a model for what ambitious storytelling can still say about modern life . . . Franzen swings for the fences and clears them with yards to spare." ―San Francisco Chronicle
"The novel we've been waiting for...a stunning anatomy of family dysfunction...a contemporary novel that will endure." ―Esquire
"In its complexity, its scrutinizing and utterly unsentimental humanity, and its grasp of the subtle relationships between domestic drama and global events....It is a major accomplishment." ―Michael Cunningham
"Frighteningly, luminously authentic." ―The Boston Globe
"A genuine masterpiece . . . This novel is a wisecracking, eloquent, heartbreaking beauty." ―Elle
"The brightest, boldest, and most ambitious novel I've read in many years." ―Pat Conroy
"Brilliant . . . Almost unbearably lifelike." ―The New York Observer
"Funny and deeply sad, large-hearted and merciless, The Corrections is a testament to the range and depth of pleasures great fiction affords." ―David Foster Wallace
"This is a spellbinding novel . . . that is both funny and piercing." ―People
"Marvelous . . . Everything we want in a novel--except, when it's rocking along, for it never to be over." ―The New York Times Book Review
"Jonathan Franzen has built a powerful novel out of the swarming consciousness of a marriage, a family, a whole culture--our culture." ―Don DeLillo
"Looms as a model for what ambitious storytelling can still say about modern life . . . Franzen swings for the fences and clears them with yards to spare." ―San Francisco Chronicle
"The novel we've been waiting for...a stunning anatomy of family dysfunction...a contemporary novel that will endure." ―Esquire
"In its complexity, its scrutinizing and utterly unsentimental humanity, and its grasp of the subtle relationships between domestic drama and global events....It is a major accomplishment." ―Michael Cunningham
"Frighteningly, luminously authentic." ―The Boston Globe
"A genuine masterpiece . . . This novel is a wisecracking, eloquent, heartbreaking beauty." ―Elle
"The brightest, boldest, and most ambitious novel I've read in many years." ―Pat Conroy
"Brilliant . . . Almost unbearably lifelike." ―The New York Observer
"Funny and deeply sad, large-hearted and merciless, The Corrections is a testament to the range and depth of pleasures great fiction affords." ―David Foster Wallace
"This is a spellbinding novel . . . that is both funny and piercing." ―People
Readers Top Reviews
Mr. D. Nash
I grant that Jonathan Franzen has constructed a distinctly dark comic picture of a family - all of whom have severe mental issues. Father Alfred is deeply but ridiculously moral; all his life sexually repressed; suffering from dementia; experiencing hallucinations; exhibiting paranoia. Mother Enid tries to keep the family show on the road; in denial about its deep problems; self deluding about her children; but deeply loving. Wayward Chip is an academic who gets chucked out for sexual misdemeanours; drifts into a friendship with a very dodgy Lithuanian politician; in his shame tries to avoid any protracted family contact. Gifted chef Denise cannot cope well with a stormy lesbian relationship with her boss's wife. There are some stellar comic inventions. However: IT'S TWICE AS LONG AS IT NEEDS TO BE! I almost gave up in exhaustion several times. It is nearly 600 pages long. Why is it that American authors seem to think that their talent is measured by weight or volume? Is the vital art of the editor entirely absent across the water? At 300 pages, this book could have been very good or even excellent. As it is, it has enough highlights for me to give it 3 stars.
Adnan SoysalB. Krist
Stopped at page 75. First of all author has a bad writing style. Sentences are long, clumsy, or tasteless. Secondly, story is unclear, plot is not engaging, tasteless. The odd thing about Jonathan Franzen is that while it is fun to read his dialogues, (That was also the case in his other novel "Freedom") his narration style is disengaging, boring, difficult to follow.
T. J. DaughertyGHM.
At times Franzen has amazing insight into the absurdity of the classic dysfunctional American family. The nuanced understanding of guilt, competition, loyalty and betrayal is fantastic. Parts of this book had me laughing out loud as well (and I mean that in the literal sense). Oh how I wanted to love this novel, and some of it I did. BUT.... ...his prose and writing style is often a slog to get through. Tedious, confusing, and unearned. I can't help but feel like Franzen is trying really hard to ape Vonnegut or Cormac McCarthy.....and it's just isn't working. Every time he'd build narrative momentum I'd feel derailed by an endless diversion to nowhere. This is 3 stars in my view...not because its average, but because that's the only way to split the difference of 5 and 1...of which it's both. In the end it's probably worth a read, but good luck on your journey.
Flying ScotThe Grouc
Don't care how many awards they give this book - it's hideous. Overwrought, almost luxuriating in misery and despair, there's not a single saving grace here. This book just shows how whacked the judgment of today's critics are. You know what? I don't think they even read it.
