I didn't expect this novel to live up to the hype. I was wrong. I absolutely loved it.

Franzen serves up a riveting ride through suburban and urban America as he tracks one Midwestern family's unraveling.

As with The Corrections, he weaves political happenings (9/11 and mountaintop removal mining, for example) with the personal dramas of various characters in and close to the family. As for the characters, they're Dysfunctional and sarcastic, loveable and thoroughly human, and at times, laugh-out-loud funny. Franzen casually moves the story along, yet all the while you know a maelstrom is coming. Things unfold in delicious disaster but come back together with a few unexpected twists.

A great story, very well told.