These are the customer reviews for THE CORRECTIONS, by Jonathan Franzen- a decade ago now. I read it and thought it so-so. Certainly not the best book I read that year and I read a lot of so-called literary novels.But here we go again and before it's publication date, it's been declared a masterpiece. Perhaps, but it will take me weeks to find out because I am way down on the list at my library.
Customer Reviews from Amazon
| | Average Customer Review 3.1 out of 5 stars (1,025 customer reviews) Now I am not saying that these reviews are to be trusted but they do show some reluctance to declare this a masterpiece. Did you read it? Do you plan to read FREEDOM. What do you think? |
17 comments:
Patti - I have to admit, I haven't read it. But I'm always a bit wary of these kinds of reviews. There are only a few reviewers whose reviews I trust. The rest..well, I prefer to make up my own mind.
I haven't read it but I seldom trust the designations of "masterpiece." well, from anyone but myself. :)
I started the corrections three or four times but never became engaged enough to actually finish or make it beyond the first 60 or 70 pages.
I heard Jonathan Franzen read from THE CORRECTIONS on NPR. It discouraged me from reading his best seller. Now, Franzen's on the cover of TIME and the NYTBR pronounces FREEDOM a masterpiece. I think I'll pass.
Franzen is a mediocre talent as a wrter...as a jackass, he is beyond gifted. As too often in the past, the latter is being rewarded.
Although I don't think we can blame him the the media's anointment.
I am sure the same frenzy will happen when Jeffrey Eugenides finally gets his new book out--also a decade in coming.
Oh, we can blame him for acting, as he did with the Winfrey show fracas, as if he is the transcendant genius of our era, not to be sullied by questions of commerce or comparisons to such lesser talent as Joyce Carol Oates. That is why he's an ass. Not because he's on the cover of TIME...that's why that magazine is a collective ass...or utter prostitute.
Not a nice event.
Not the only reason he's an ass, but the most public.
I was given The Corrections as a gift and read it. The book surprised me and, while I can't say it was the best book I read in 2001, it is certainly the only one I can remember. I followed that up with his book of essays, How to Be Alone. I had already decided to read Freedom and, according to my library computer, I have a copy waiting for me *today*. I'm looking forward to it.
Wow. I wish I belonged to your library. I am way down on the list and I put it on weeks ago.
If you have to read a book on how to be alone you probably need to go out and find some company. I was born knowing how to be alone. Anti-social misanthropy is not for amateurs. Go to the mall and leave it to us heredity pros.
I started it last night and I enjoyed what I read. I didn't like The Corrections, but I wanted to give him another try.
You may not like him or his work, but to call him a mediocre talent seems invidious.
Media attention is not his fault. There have been others before him who have received this kind of blitz and there'll be others after him. Who cares? Now I'm going to go back to the book.
I tried it and stopped, but didn't give it a fair chance. I will DEFINITELY go back and try it again (The Corrections, I mean) because of the TIME article (I like what was said about his work ethic and his personality). That and all the negativity this guy is getting for doing nothing more than doing what he does; writing a book. My guess is that if 85% of published novels (any novels, but not vanity press) were dished out to 100,000 readers, 25% would hate the book and never want to read it again, 25% would love the thing and want to read another and the other 50% would be hit/miss. That's my guess ... nothing more than that. I call things masterful and/or masterpieces from time to time and to me they are that. They might not stand the test of someone else's time but that's what it all is in the end anyway, totally subjective. I just don't get all the negative shit this guy is taking for doing what he does. I don't think he said he wrote a masterpiece. Others said/say it.
I'm waiting for my name to work its way to the top of the list to decide.
I call him a mediocre talent because of what I've read by him, not because he is a jackass, which he also is.
He's better than, say, William Vollmann (few aren't) or Rick Moody, but he's no Thomas Disch, no Lawrence Block, no Lorrie Moore, no Joanna Russ, no Jayne Anne Phillips.
And I don't blame him for the hype, though perhaps he could be as pre-emptory and ridiculous about the current ridiculous blitz as he was about the OBC selection...or less so, but at least suggest that it might be a Bit lopsided...and then seem a bit less hypocritical.
But what matters in judging his work is his work.
And what matter in publishing matters is that all this effort is being expended to prop Franzen up while dozens, no doubt hundreds of more worthy books make their way to "forgotten" status.
I like Franzen as a writer, I've read the Corrections as well as his early novels and nonfiction and I bought Freedom a day or two after it came out. I won't go as far as call the man a genius, but he is writing a type of fiction (in the same vein as Richard Yates or Phillip Roth) that isn't being touted by most New York houses, writing which embraces both plot and character, and following his own vision as opposed to chasing dollars and cents and trying to figure out what the hottest trend in novels is. I respect that and applaud it.
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