The Hilarious Hypocrisy of Jonathan Franzen

Photo by David Shankbone, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Jonathan Franzen’s Guardian article – What’s Wrong With The Modern World – was such a monumental act of self-parody that I was surprised it wasn’t published in The Onion. Even his failures (to have sex with an “unbelievably pretty girl” in Munich) aren’t failures, but a decision he makes, right before shoehorning in mention of his Fulbright scholarship. Classic Franzen, you might say.

Franzen likes to think of himself as a “lefty” but he’s...