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.