the corrections - jonathan franzen
I made a firm deal with myself that we were going to read this as comedy, because I was aware that otherwise the book could get very, very depressing in a hurry. And it worked. There were places where The Corrections was still horrifying and cringe-inducing and terribly tragic, but by hissing 'comedy, comedy, comedy' to myself I managed to make it to the end, undepressed. And it was hilarious and very, very good.
There were some issues, of course: I almost threw the book across the room when the very first pages went on and on in a très literary vein about 'the alarm bells of anxiety' (the wot???), I didn't care much for the Lithuanian Adventure, and I had a number of problems with the sister, Denise. While she was nice enough, and worthy-of-a-good-story enough, like Ayelet, I was kind of bored by her. I felt that Franzen never got to know Denise intimately, that she was described from the outside, an abstraction, not someone he knew and understood and cared about as much as Gary or Chipper or even poor old crazy Enid.
But oh, how good the rest was. The story echoes throughout the book and the incredibly tragic normal-but-dysfunctional family are just brilliant. Highly recommended. Just please remember to read it as comedy, OK?
04-01-2004
