Las correcciones

The madness of an autumn prairie cold front coming through. You could feel it: something terrible was going to happen.

The Corrections is het geprezen en veelbesproken werk van Jonathan Franzen. Het werd in de Verenigde Staten uitgebracht op 1 september 2001, tien dagen vóór 9/11. Om die reden is het door sommigen bestempeld als het laatste grote boek van het Amerika van vóór de aanslagen.Of The Corrections nu een 'verouderd' beeld geeft, betwijfel ik, al onttrok ik me niet aan de indruk een soort Seinfeld on steroids te lezen. De familie Lamberts is op en top Amerikaans – de koppige Alfred die steeds verder achteruitgaat, moeder Enid die als enige echt uitkijkt naar een familiereünie tijdens de kerstdagen, zoon Gary die de grip op zijn eigen gezin kwijtraakt, zoon Chip die steeds verder het moeras inzakt en dochter Denise die voortdurend zoekende is. Franzen legt hun levens genadeloos onder de loep en maakt de lezer getuige van de onderhuidse spanningen. Een hoogtepunt vond ik de machtsstrijd tussen Gary en één van zijn kinderen over het avondeten. Franzen gunt de lezer een kijk in het hoofd van de jongen die weigert op te geven en daarom niet van tafel mag:

The taste of self-inflicted suffering, of an evening trashed in spite, brought curious satisfactions. Other people stopped being real enough to carry blame for how you felt. Only you and your refusal remained. And like self-pity, or like the blood that filled your mouth when a tooth was pulled – the salty ferric juices that you swallowed and allowed yourself to savor – refusal had a flavor for which a taste could be acquired.

Franzen roept hier en daar zeker de vraag op waarom mensen zichzelf überhaupt zouden kwellen door te trouwen en kinderen te krijgen. Helaas vond ik het verhaal te lang om echt geboeid te blijven: de laatste tweehonderd pagina's verloor ik mijn aandacht. Voor mij deed het daarom onder voor [b:Vrijheid|9276113|Vrijheid|Jonathan Franzen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1284122231l/9276113.SY75.jpg|9585796], waarin Franzen de gespannen verhoudingen in een familie overtuigender beschrijft.

Is this Updike for the early twenty-first century? I loved the backbone of the corrections that the individual family members tried to make in their lives, against the background of the market 'corrections'.

A richly moving, yet very amusing, chronicle of a family dealing with the vicissitudes of old age and trying to make a mark in early middle age.

This is a genre that just isn't for me. Franzen was recommended by my boss, but this is absolutely not working for me.

I hated the characters, especially Gary and pre-Lithuania Chip, with a passion. I kept groaning about Enid and Alfred and how unnecessary difficult they made their life. The most accomplished seemed to be Denise, and after what she did, that success doesn't come easy. I think I like her, though.

I almost stopped reading this after I'd started, as it seemed just a mite too clever. But the well-written sentences and plot are compelling, even as they teeter between floridness and cynicism, and I enjoyed it more the more I read. I found myself chuckling out loud at times. But I ultimately felt the balance tipped towards cynicism too much throughout for me to say that I really enjoyed this novel. I wonder where the author stands in relation to his characters -- is this just a complete farce?

Couldn't put this down.

Took about a week to read -- but it was worth it. I must say: Franzen's voice is pretty unique; a lot of out-of-the-way words and some overdone descriptions and back-stories here and there, but all together, a f*cking great book. Really great American story of a good ole messed-up American family (but in a good, true, humorous way).

I don't know why I let this book sit on my shelf for over a year. Lots of great ideas and thoughts came from reading this.

What a relief. I just finished this book. If I hadn't been reading it for a book group, I would have abandoned it after about 50 pages. But I felt obligated to finish so that I could discuss in the group why I hated it so much. It was a painful read. I could only read about 10 pages at a time before I feeling so disgusted and wanting to take a shower, and switched to some other book.

To be fair, the Denise story, I only somewhat disliked it. And the section in Lithuania was ok as well, although pretty ridiculous, another plot line where I thought why in the world are we here? Yes, I'm talking about you, the woman on the boat from Chadds Ford, among so many other plot bits which just left me thinking, oh please.

Of course, a bigger issue was basically hating every single character in the book and wondering why anybody would bother to write a novel with all of them in it. Does art have to be so dire to be considered important and good? After wallowing in the horror of Chip's life, I thought, good, I'm through that. But then we get into the awfulness of Gary and Caroline's life after that. Then why their parents had such an awful life. All of them tinged with strange undercurrents especially sexual ones. Then Denise, well, that one somehow wasn't quite so awful. Perhaps Franzen couldn't quite figure out how to fill her with the same sorts of awfulness the rest of the characters ooze.

The last 1/3 of the book didn't really redeem the rest of it, but I was able to read it in larger chunks without wanting to tear the book to pieces quite so much. I suppose the last few pages is supposed to redeem some of the characters but by then I just didn't care. I wanted it to be over and for them to be out of my life.

I see this book has gotten a real mix of reviews, mostly five star with a few one star and not much in-between. I guess it is a challenging book, in that I spent almost every minute reading it wanting to not read it anymore. Does that make it art? Or even important literature? I don't know. I'm just glad I'm done and I have my life back.

This was an amazing book. In my opinion, it was extremely well written, entertaining and assuring since it documented the story a family even more messed up than my own extended one. (Mom, you don't count as messed up!)

Excellent characters, tight plot line. In short, it was a truely great read that I couldn't put down.