Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen
★★
Do you guys have any books that you just dread reading? I had firmly decided not to read this. I read Franzen’s first book, The Corrections, and I hated it. The characters were selfish and whiny and it just wasn’t for me. Then there’s all the drama about the author himself being a self-important jerk who is too good for his readers. All-in-all I was just left with a bad taste in my mouth.
Then Freedom was released and everyone had Franzen fever again. The hype was overwhelming, everyone, and their great-grandma and best friends, etc. was reading the book and everyone had an opinion. I didn’t care; I wasn’t going to read it.
Then my book club chose it and… well I had to read it.
So, about 100 pages in and I was actually enjoying it. Patty and Walter Berglund live a suburban life with their kids in a small community. The story delves into Patty’s adolescence and college years where she grew up with distant parents. Now she’s overly attentive to her son Joey and he lacks discipline.
I found Patty and Walter’s story fascinating, but once we got to their son Joey’s section, I lost interest. It was all sex, masturbation, selfish behavior and callous indifference. Joey is cavalier about committing adultery, but completely disgusted when someone cheats on him. His strange double-standards were disgusting after awhile.
The characters are exhausting. I don’t want to read about a long argument between neighbors discussing whether or not they should let their cat play outside. I realize that real life is made up of that frustrating minutia, but that’s exactly why I don’t want to read it. If I loved the characters or was rooting for them, maybe I would care, but there’s something about the people Franzen creates that always leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. They are always selfish and self-righteous, a bad combination. Even when one of them is taking advantage of another, I can’t feel bad for either because they deserve each other.
Bottom line, if you liked/loved The Corrections I truly think you’d like this one. I think it is a more mature book in some ways. If on the other hand you didn’t like The Corrections or haven’t read it, I don’t recommend this. I didn’t like it and it will definitely be my last attempt at Franzen. This was round three (How To Be Alone was #1) and really that is plenty of chances. He’s just not for me.
“Injustice had a shape, and a temperature and a texture and a very bad taste.”
** One thing that was an interesting coincidence, the book talks about War & Peace multiple times and because I read it earlier this year I understood the references. It’s funny how it works out that way sometimes.
