The Corrections
By Jonathan Franzen
The Corrections is the much-hyped novel that provoked a crisis
on Oprah’s Book Club when Franzen intimated that the
grand lady’s endorsement might harm his literary reputation.
I approached the book with a certain degree of skepticism,
which seemed justified for the first several hundred pages.
The characters – the three adult children and elderly
parents of a fractious midwestern family – seemed too
negative, too arch, and too harsh in their interactions with
one another. I then encountered a passage in which the parents,
Enid and Alfred Lambert, embark on a cruise to Nova Scotia.
After just a few pages of this luminous, captivating prose,
I had surrendered to the book’s siren spell, which
carried me through to its conclusion.
Over the course of the novel, the reader experiences an extended,
multifaceted, and unsparing journey into the lives of Enid,
Albert, and their three deeply troubled children – Gary,
Chip, and Denise. While the dialogue can be almost painfully
lacerating, and the signs of redemption for this clan are
few and faint, The Corrections leads you to a truly profound
understanding of how these complex individuals came to arrive
their rather sorry state. Perhaps the greatest feat of The
Corrections lies in the subtle ways that Franzen compels
you – often against your best instincts – to
care about these beleaguered souls more deeply than you ever
imagined possible. Neal Kane
©Copyright 2008 Libretto,
Inc. |
