The Corrections (2001)

Up to now I didn't read it because I thought it would be too depressing, but all the 5 star ratings and raves swayed me. Bad move. The comic undertone wasn't enough to balance out the dementia story-line for me. I should have quit, but it read so fast and was so well written that I couldn't jump ship. When I finished it last night I had to chase it with a couple of chapters of another book to keep it out of my dreams. ( )

It has been a long time since I've read anything like this. I mostly avoid contemporary literature (except for the kind with spells and spaceships, and that is [let's be honest] mostly not literature) so The Corrections came like a blow to the face.

My mother is Enid. No she isn't, but Franzen's characterization of Enid made me think of my mother in the same light. The others didn't have so much personal resonance for me, but they fit into the world so well - even when Chip made a [a:Couplandesque|1886|Douglas Coupland|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1264509011p2/1886.jpg] there-and-back-again jaunt to Eastern Europe it seemed completely legitimate and fair.

I am wary of hype, I hate to be led to thinking highly of an author only to find more pretentious critic-bait. Franzen may be pretentious, but his bait works for me. The book is a parade of pathetic life-choices and cringey situations and downright depressing realities of day to day living and, not just growing up, but aging; by the end of the book all of this is somehow uplifting.

Mr. Franzen, I will drink some more of your kool-aid. ( )

I made a second attempt at reading this book since two friends have loved it. I managed to get to around page 350 this time before I couldn't take anymore of Franzen's characters' internal incessant babbling. Blah, blah, blah of thoroughly boring, unlikable middle class Americans. Admittedly the author was often insightful, but I just didn't care about the angst of these characters. I have better things to do with my time. ( )

This novel is aptly named, exploring different kinds of corrections as its theme. There are the corrections one makes for past mistakes; corrections subject to a fallible perception of the problem to be solved, when being too self-conscious or judgemental; correcting others, or for their actions. All of these efforts may lead into traps, the largest of them being that 'corrections' place emphasis on fixing rather than accepting. I thought I was going to be reading a book about selfish people making bad decisions, and there's plenty of that going on, but this is more focussed dealing with the aftermath of all these corrections in play.

Reviews I read in advance warned me that this book is littered with unlikeable characters, but I didn't find anyone in the central family unsympathetic. They can all be seen as victims of circumstance, upbringing, accident, illness or of each other. I had less patience for their instances of narrow-mindedness and prejudice, but this didn't define a whole person. In fact (as in real life) all of these people are revealed through backstory to have much deeper complexity than what a surface glance would suggest. When Chip is first introduced it feels as though we're told everything about him in one page - and, we are. It's only when that story is stepped through in greater detail that we learn how much more lies behind the surface impression; and so it goes with each until, well before the last is delved into, I learned to be both more cautious and more curious.

A novel provides one view into the world, and Franzen's is littered with the seamy side of capitalism: a story full of avarice and greed, where even the principled who stand against it are doing so out of spite rather than morals. Family is an anchor for some in this environment, but it also threatens to be the wrong kind of anchor that will plunge them into the depths. Sometimes, however, those depths turn out to be their own dark sides that they're forced to confront, offering a chance to come away stronger after all.

I'm not fond of the author's revisionist history of Lithuania and its false portrayal. It would have been more honest had Franzen invented a new country for the purpose, but perhaps that would have veered too close to Narnia for his liking. ( )

A sprawling narrative of epic proportions. Good if a little depressing in portraying the modern American ethos. ( )