Freedom

I’ve never written a review on here but this book was a rite of passage to get through, though undoubtedly the authors intention. This book relies on Franzens family epic formula and with the typical valid critiques that can be found in this book that are probably an accurate reflection of franzens progress as a writer, I found it to be him as a slightly more thoughtful, more considerate observer. Franzen writes with his usual colorful way of making his characters painfully believable and three dimensional and from this you have the usual aforementioned valid critiques; His ambivalence to take a concrete stance on the actions of his characters and serve only as a narrator may be one of them and not necessarily an unfounded one but one absence that functionally serves a purpose in not alienating the readers anyone of which could befit his morally grey characters.

I’m typing this from my phone and not really for an audience but more for myself. The drama in this book is by no means unrealistic but leaves whatever faith you may have in the nuclear family model to be more shaken if it wasn’t already from personal experience. You understand in this book how these characters come to be themselves akin to their environment and the families that raised them and for all their insufferability find most of them to be remarkably easy to sympathize for. In critiquing this book and the actions of the characters there is very little that can objectively be said and that which isn’t informed from personal experience.

It felt good to know that this book doesn’t have the miserable ending it felt like it was spiraling toward but in the way of it being so realistic you hope it’s a crisis you yourself can avert. I think people can, but I’m also very young and very naive and the product of two people for whom that crisis was almost cosmically determined. In the way this book is unrealistic it is so only because I myself can’t imagine losing my bearings in my middle age only for having not experienced them yet. I don’t think this book intends to deter people from the traditionally upstanding life the main couple pursued, I think it just serves as projection for midlife crisis and serve as a basis for the understanding that most crises lack in just being limited to one’s own experience as oneself. This is a poorly written review I know.

My biggest critique of franzen seems to be on his fixation with his notion of what the middle class is when he is really describing upper middle to upper class. I appreciate that he doesn’t try to write for people whose experience he doesn’t at least tangentially have familiarity with, but the liberal arts college educated east coast family is not the middle class, and I find it hard to imagine it really was even in the 00s this book is set in. The average middle class family does not come upon a lakeset mansion in Minnesota and indulge their crises out of boredom. Often the moral attitudes of middle class people come from an understanding of how dire their situations are financially that to jeopardize the domestic situation would could make a bad situation worse. Franzen doesn’t have this experience, and perhaps for that reason it’s fitting that the book ends right before the 08 recession. There is some solace there in that perhaps the more dire the straits the more self discipline required for the ‘middle class’ family. Franzen is definitely aware that the middle class family thinks of themselves and their ambitions as temporarily embarrassed millionaires but has little engagement with how middle class and lower to lower middle class families ebb in and out of poverty. I attribute this to his positionality as the very kind he loves to write: the white east coast liberal arts college educated type.

Another thing I think this book lacked at times was the strain or even lack thereof given financial situation of being a mother to two children and how motherhood is an almost inherently traumatizing endeavor. It can make patty more two dimensional than she necessarily deserves, instead Franzen tends to attribute her moral errs to boredom as a housewife rather than how women tend to carry a disproportionate load in domestic labor and child rearing, for as feminist as the husband may be his feminist politics is never examined from the lens of child rearing as the two grown children never have their childhood really examined. For similar reasons the eldest daughter is a practically absent character for most of the book and doesn’t examine how oldest daughters tend to bear an emotional load from the mothers, though this is examined in the youngest son almost to the neglect of examining the daughter. To a less than privileged reader the sons financial endeavors seem outright outlandish to a fault and the consequences of this in the long term isn’t really examined on him or his partner, instead choosing to examine them in the present rather than examine their potentially perilous future after the books conclusion.


Altogether this was a good read albeit far from touching its a colorful way to do justice to character and personality types and examining how the perfect storms culminate in households over years and years. Franzen is a talented writer albeit a complicated one on occasion to have feelings about, especially when his writing can be more clinical than emotional. Excellent read if just emotionally flat at times.

The unknown harm inflicted by people through love.

Franzen's characters make your heart feel heavier the longer you read them. The older they grow, the more psychological damage accumulates, and the more messed up they reveal themselves to be.

7 years on from my first read, and wiser in love than I was then, I now feel the claustrophobia, the futility and the hurt of this story with increased intensity. Sudden death. The pain of long love. Avoidance and anxiety. The futility of trying. The concluding chapters drew occasional tears.

Franzen did an amazing job constructing these characters and dedicating perspective to each. But the second half of the book becomes bogged down in characters engaging in political exposition in a way that becomes self-indulgent. Like, we get it, Jonathan - you prefer birds to people.

Overall, some of the characterization of the women does strike me as a little mean-spirited and the animalistic desires he argues for his male characters are a little broad-brush. But I'd still recommend this as a time capsule for the political temperature of the aughts and an entertaining tour of what various upper middle-class people were involved in.

I feel like Franzen researched me, my family and our neighborhood, for his opening chapter "Good Neighbors". This was a fantastic look into neighborly dynamics, truly amazing. Great writing.

As with The Corrections, I feel like every character was written about me. We all have different moods and thoughts and views, and each character embraced at least one of my traits.

Then the book became dark, important, upsetting, eye-opening, virtuous, clever and all those things that make a good story rich. Life got in the way, as it has a tendency to do, with the very real-like human characters, and humanity's best unique quality is in the strength of our emotional capability, which, in turn, has a tendency to really screw things up.

Franzen covers this ground skillfully.

Like life, this tale has its bright moments, and its necessary dark moments. The very last sentence of the very last page redeemed and validated the darkest sections of this tale.

There are themes that I care about and wish others cared more about. At its' core, this is a "green" book, or at least as "green" as humans can get, (as far as I know - lots of issues, lots of solutions, give and take at every issue).

To go one further, the title, "Freedom" is so perfect and yet, open for controversy, like freedom itself. What is freedom? What defines freedom for you? Does your freedom interfere with the freedom of others? Is there really such a thing for humanity that could be considered freedom?
I believe the deeper thinkers, after reading this, may reconsider the attributes that define freedom for humanity.

I was just shuddering at the end, and I had to cry for a while, in the way of seeing a masterpiece come to a close. This is a great novel. I am rapturous in my praise. Hilarious, heart-breaking, full of humanity. I love Walter most of all, but Patty too. If I had a criticism, the are too privileged to truly represent mainstream America, a separation of 6 years seemed a bit far-fetched, Joey's character change never completely makes sense to me. But Walter's rants! Yes Walter, yes! This would be a great book to discuss in a class, as it is full of little nuggets. It is quite long however.

I don't think Johnathan Franzen likes people very much.

Franzen writes tlightly focussed character-driven social novels about families with problems. He is very, very good at it. Freedom, in particular, is about Walter and Patty Berglund, their friends, children, and neighbors, and all the various ways they make each other miserable.

The writing in this book is amazingly good. I could complain about serious narrative bog down after the halfway point, and I'm not especially convinced of Franzen's portrayal of Patty Berglund and her motivations (given that her autobiographical narrative takes up two-thirds of the book, that's a problem). But when Franzen writes well he deserves every accolade he's been given. The good parts of this book are really, really good.

But there's a sort of misanthropic archness to Franzen's that doesn't sit well with me. I don't have issues with the fact that all the characters themselves are terribly dislikable. It's that Franzen seems to make them dislikeable and to also make fun of them at the same time. The Corrections had this problem as well, although it was more muted and the humor was clearer (I loved the Corrections). The archness in this book seems meaner and angrier, and for me it makes the book less enjoyable to read.

I really like what Franzen does, I just wish there was less Franzen in it.

Shallow, bitter people leading hollow lives. Am I the only one reminded of [b:The Bonfire of the Vanities|2666|The Bonfire of the Vanities|Tom Wolfe|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1229439221s/2666.jpg|1080201]? Doubtful.

Like Bonfire, Freedom leaves me cold. Maybe it captures the zeitgeist of the 90s and 00s. Maybe it's the defining oeuvre. And maybe I'm just not cool enough to get it.

Well written, often poignant, Freedom just didn't seem meaningful. I haven't learned or grown from it. No moment of reflection upon finishing the last page, just a quiet "well, that's over with".

It's always hard to review a complete brick of a book (literally speaking), and this one is quite something.

Franzen has almost entirely adhered to the simple point-and-tell way of God informing the reader of what happens throughout the book, interspersed with a few character perspective moments.

Walter and Patty Berglund are a smart, suburban, modern married couple who are in turmoil and seemingly cannot come to terms with this. They avoid each other rather, avoiding their issues apart from when they fight, which is like a cold, staged play, reminiscent of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" in some affects.

Franzen's main strengths are the storytelling, the parallel plots and treating the reader like an intelligent person. At the same time, the best bits of this book read way better than a very long episode of "Desperate Housewives", which it often reminded me of. At its worst, the book reminded me of a very long, outstretched and bloated episode of "Desperate Housewives".

Some might say this book pin-points the human condition of relationships in modern-day western civilisation, and I'll say it does to a certain extent. Franzen is very good at writing matter-of-factly when it comes to describing human emotions which I think works to his advantage: the reader is allowed to think for herself/himself and the characters of the book come out a lot differently than if Franzen would have applied sappy adjectives throughout.

All in all, this is a big book, and I think its flaws and brilliance is part of what it's all about: people's inner worlds, as felt inside and projected outside. Highly recommendable, masterfully written despite a few lows, ending up with being one of the best fictional books I've read in a few years.

It's always hard to review a complete brick of a book (literally speaking), and this one is quite something.

Franzen has almost entirely adhered to the simple point-and-tell way of God informing the reader of what happens throughout the book, interspersed with a few character perspective moments.

Walter and Patty Berglund are a smart, suburban, modern married couple who are in turmoil and seemingly cannot come to terms with this. They avoid each other rather, avoiding their issues apart from when they fight, which is like a cold, staged play, reminiscent of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" in some affects.

Franzen's main strengths are the storytelling, the parallel plots and treating the reader like an intelligent person. At the same time, the best bits of this book read way better than a very long episode of "Desperate Housewives", which it often reminded me of. At its worst, the book reminded me of a very long, outstretched and bloated episode of "Desperate Housewives".

Some might say this book pin-points the human condition of relationships in modern-day western civilisation, and I'll say it does to a certain extent. Franzen is very good at writing matter-of-factly when it comes to describing human emotions which I think works to his advantage: the reader is allowed to think for herself/himself and the characters of the book come out a lot differently than if Franzen would have applied sappy adjectives throughout.

All in all, this is a big book, and I think its flaws and brilliance is part of what it's all about: people's inner worlds, as felt inside and projected outside. Highly recommendable, masterfully written despite a few lows, ending up with being one of the best fictional books I've read in a few years.

It's always hard to review a complete brick of a book (literally speaking), and this one is quite something.

Franzen has almost entirely adhered to the simple point-and-tell way of God informing the reader of what happens throughout the book, interspersed with a few character perspective moments.

Walter and Patty Berglund are a smart, suburban, modern married couple who are in turmoil and seemingly cannot come to terms with this. They avoid each other rather, avoiding their issues apart from when they fight, which is like a cold, staged play, reminiscent of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" in some affects.

Franzen's main strengths are the storytelling, the parallel plots and treating the reader like an intelligent person. At the same time, the best bits of this book read way better than a very long episode of "Desperate Housewives", which it often reminded me of. At its worst, the book reminded me of a very long, outstretched and bloated episode of "Desperate Housewives".

Some might say this book pin-points the human condition of relationships in modern-day western civilisation, and I'll say it does to a certain extent. Franzen is very good at writing matter-of-factly when it comes to describing human emotions which I think works to his advantage: the reader is allowed to think for herself/himself and the characters of the book come out a lot differently than if Franzen would have applied sappy adjectives throughout.

All in all, this is a big book, and I think its flaws and brilliance is part of what it's all about: people's inner worlds, as felt inside and projected outside. Highly recommendable, masterfully written despite a few lows, ending up with being one of the best fictional books I've read in a few years.

I almost wanted to dislike this book because of all the fanfare and over-exposure Franzen received - I felt like I'd read it before I had read it. Surprisingly and happily, I was mostly proven wrong. The brilliant observations and spot-on characterization of a certain American milieu kept me hanging in there when Patty and Walter were thoroughly exhausting and provoking me. Was relieved to finish it in a way. Probably not 'The' but certainly A great American novel.

This book would have earned five stars, but the end felt entirely disconnected from the rest of the book. It was inauthentic, and felt like it was designed to appeal to a movie going audience.

The rest of the book is brilliant, though I found the entire mountain top renewal section to be superfluous. It felt like it was crammed into the book so Franzen could expound upon his environmental issues; in particular, his devotion to songbird ecology. Personally, I'm a lover of birds, and especially songbirds, but even I found no value in the constant discussion of feral and outdoor cats, the populations decimated by our technology, and the destruction of habitats. This is a book about family, and when he sticks to that, Franzen delivers a virtuoso performance.

Slight Spoiler Below This Point.

In the end, this book is weaker than The Corrections, which felt like a perfect novel about family. One of the themes that Franzen seems to be exploring on a consistent basis is the idea of the prodigal son, and I found the prodigal son of The Corrections (Chip) much more enthralling than Freedom's Joey. Joey and Walter's reconciliation felt forced (though, in all honesty, reconciliation can often feel that way.) Reconciliation, agreeability, and of course, freedom(more precisely, the excess of freedom), are the resounding themes of this book. The book mostly succeeds in exploring all of them in a fascinating and authentic way.

But man, I hate the ending.