Synopsis
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The winner of the National Book Award, the New York Times No.1 Bestseller and the worldwide literary sensation, 'The Corrections' has established itself as a truly great American novel. The Lamberts -- Enid and Alfred and their three grown-up children -- are a troubled family living in a troubled age. Alfred is ill and as his condition worsens the whole family must face the failures, secrets and long-buried hurts that haunt them if they are to make the corrections that each desperately needs.
Stretching from the Midwest in the mid-century to Wall Street and Eastern Europe in the age of globalised greed, The Corrections brings an old-time America of freight trains and civic duty into wild collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental healthcare, and New Economy millionaires. It confirms Jonathan Franzen's position as one of the most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul currently at work.
Reviews
'A book which is funny, moving, generous, brutal and intelligent, and which poses the ultimate question: what life is for? And that is as much as anyone could ask.'
Blake Morrison, Guardian
'Intelligent, compellingly readable, funny and above all generous spirited, it is a rare thing, a modern novel with both head and heart.'
Daily Mail
'Jonathan Franzen has built a powerful novel out of the swarming consciousness of a marriage, a family, a whole culture.'
Don DeLillo
'Impossible to dislike, an unpretentious page-turner.'
Zadie Smith
'A major accomplishment.'
Michael Cunningham
'For anyone who has ever found themselves guiltily yearning for an Anne Tyler while in the middle of an Updike or Wolfe. The Lamberts are utterly believable, and once they have all told their stories you can't help but sympathise with them. Be prepared to be moved.'
Independent on Sunday
'Compelling. A pleasure from beginning to end. Franzen, in one leap, has put himself into the league of Updike and Roth.'
Evening Standard
'A novel of outstanding sympathy, wit, moral intelligence and pathos, a family saga told with stylistic brio and psychological and political insight. No British novelist is currently writing at this pitch.'
Financial Times
'A genuine masterpiece, the first great American novel of the twenty-first century!A wisecracking, eloquent, heartbreaking beauty.'
Elle
The Corrections is a wonderful book. Every page simmers with wit, close observation and intelligence. Franzen has delivered as wounding and thoughtful an indictment of contemporary existence as it is possible to make
.
John Burnside, Scotsman
'Funny and deeply sad, large-hearted and merciless, The Corrections is a testament to the range and depth of pleasures that great fiction affords.
David Foster Wallace
About the Author
|
Jonathan Franzen was born in 1959 and is the author of three novels – The Twenty-Seventh City (1988), Strong Motion (1992), The Corrections (2001) – a collection of essays, How to Be Alone (2002), a memoir, The Discomfort Zone (2006) and a translation of Spring Awakening, a play by Frank Wedekind (2007). His honours include a Whiting Writers Award in 1988, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, the American Academy's Berlin Prize in 2000, and the National Book Award (for The Corrections) in 2001. He writes frequently for the New Yorker, and lives in New York City.
Author photo © Greg Martin
More books by this author
Author 'Like for Like' recommendation |
|
Categories
Loading other formats...
Categories
Literary / Contemporary
If you loved this, you might like these...
