The New Yorker: "Agreeable" by Jonathan Franzen

A year ago, The New Yorker published a story by Jonathan Franzen called "Good Neighbors," which I discussed here. I rather liked the story, and even thought it had a good story structure. It turns out, though, that that story was an excerpt from Franzen's new novel, Freedom, which comes out in September.

The reason I looked into that old story and the novel is that I suspected this new story, "Agreeable," might be an excerpt. It begins with a lot of exposition, as if the author needs to fill t...