From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Freedom

Jonathan Franzen

Start date: April 15, 2011

Finish date: May 15, 2011

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Discussion leader: Barbara

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Dec 27, 2010 Dree rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011-reads, 1001-read

OK. I did like this book, but I didn't think it measured up to The Corrections.

Franzen is really good at explaining peoples' frustrations--Walter's internal diatribes on population, oil, no-bid contracts during war, and cats, are priceless. He does a great job showing dysfunctional families--of various sorts.

But, with this book, I felt it was about 100 pages too long. Or maybe 100 pages too short. The story flows so well--the kids growing up, Joey's relationship with Connie, Patty's confusion, W ...more

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Oct 01, 2010 Cdrueallen rated it liked it

I expected to love FREEDOM because THE CORRECTIONS had in its day been one of my favorite novels; because I'd read the first two chapters in the New Yorker and they'd been standouts in that elite fictional environment; and above all because I'd heard that the human-precipitated collapse of the ecosystem was a major theme in FREEDOM.

The first chapter of Freedom didn't disappoint, full of Franzen's sweetly snarky descriptions of the gentrifying middle class circa 1980's:

"There were... more contemp I expected to love FREEDOM because THE CORRECTIONS had in its day been one of my favorite novels; because I'd read the first two chapters in the New Yorker and they'd been standouts in that elite fictional environment; and above all because I'd heard that the human-precipitated collapse of the ecosystem was a major theme in FREEDOM.

The first chapter of Freedom didn't disappoint, full of Franzen's sweetly snarky descriptions of the gentrifying middle class circa 1980's:

"There were... more contemporary questions, like, what about those cloth diapers? Worth the bother?... Was bulgur really necessary?... How to respond when a person of color accused you of destroying the neighborhood?... Was it better to offer panhandlers food, or nothing?.... Could coffee beans be ground the night before, or did this have to be done in the morning?"

I enjoyed this perfect skewering of a lifestyle in which moral questions about charity and gentrification carry the same weight as decisions about when to grind the coffee beans. I 'd already read B. R. Meyers review of FREEDOM in which he criticized Franzen's language for being "strenuously contemporary and therefore juvenile" but I have no objections to the easy way Franzen's prose slides from eye to brain, going down like a good Gewurztraminer, its fruity sweetness balanced by a little phenolic bitterness and hiding a suprising alcoholic punch. The first sign of trouble came with the second chapter, the one in which Franzen's heroine Patty experiences date rape by the son of a prominent family and lack of support from her own parents. Like the first chapter, I'd already read it in the New Yorker, but unlike the first chapter, I couldn't get myself to reread it. It was hard to believe that the same author who in the first chapter described Patty's neighbor as someone who "had formerly been active with the SDS in Madison and was now very active in the craze for Beaujolais nouveau" opened his second chapter with "If Patty weren't an atheist, she would thank the good Lord for school athletic programs, because they basically saved her life and gave her a chance to realize herself as a person." Realizing themselves as people isn't something I expect (or look forward to) from Franzen's characters.

Self-realizing Patty is the main problem with FREEDOM, because the only thing she ends up realizing after a lifetime of marriage, motherhood, and an illicit love affair with her husband's best friend is that she'd rather be dead than single. But Patty's an Amazon compared to creepy Connie, who atones for her small sexual rebellion against Patty's son Joey by cutting her arms and giving Joey all of her college trust fund money. This so excites Joey that he marries Connie. Because the author doesn't seem to realize how creepy these relationships are, it makes him seem a little creepy too. The only major female character in FREEDOM who has anything going for her is Patty's husband Walter's young lover Lalitha, who though she works for, has sex with, and adores Walter, is at least better at her job than Walter is at his. Which I suspect is why she had to die, the literary fate of far too many interesting women.

In Franzen's THE CORRECTIONS, mom Edith, Patty's analogue in Franzen's family mythology, discovers after forty or so years of marriage that life without her husband is better than life with him, and daughter Denise discovers she loves being a chef more than she likes being to married to one, and that sex with her boss's wife is much better than sex with him. How did Franzen go from these often disagreeable but always fascinating women to the insipid female doormats in FREEDOM? Perhaps because his world view has changed from a Marxist-tinged critique of capitalism and consumer culture to a deeply pessimistic sociobiological view of the human species. in FREEDOM, Franzen isn't wondering whether or not we use our freedom wisely, but if we have any, or whether we're merely evolutionary automata with the probably catastrophic agenda of reproducing our own species at all costs. From this perspective, Patty makes sense. She's one of those socially monogamous birds who mates with the less attractive yet responsible male (Walter) who will help her raise her nestlings, but sneaks off at the first opportunity to have sex with the stronger more colorful male (Richard) who is too busy having sex with lots of chicks to settle down. Makes me wonder if the reason Patty's so in love with her son Joey is that there's something she isn't telling Walter and Franzen isn't telling us about Joey's actual paternity. But even sociobiology can't explain why Joey is so attracted to Connie, who couldn't survive on her own long enough to raise a hamster.

At this point in his career, Franzen doesn't seem to like women any better than Tolstoy did, perhaps placing most of the blame for the destruction of his beloved songbirds on the reproductive agendas of human females. I know just how he feels. But this avian alienation of Franzen's affections presents him with a perhaps insurmountable novelistic problem: how to engage human readers in the plight of a non-verbal species? Franzen hasn't solved it in FREEDOM, whose women annoy and whose men fail to engage my emotions. But there are moments that bring me around to loving FREEDOM. These come when Franzen writes about what he really cares about, which isn't Patty:

"It was the season of migration, of flight and song and sex...Terns came up from one subarctic to the other, swifts took airborne naps and never landed, song-filled thrushes waited for a southern wind and then flew nonstop for twelve hours.... High-rises and power lines and wind turbines and cellphone towers and road traffic mowed down millions of migrants, but millionis more made it through, many of them returning to the very same trees they'd nested in the year before... and there, if they were male, began to sing. Each year, they arrived to find more of their former homes paved over for parking lots or highways... Migrants exhausted by their five-thousand-mile journey competed with earlier arrivals for the remaining scraps of territory; they searched in vain for a mate, they gave up on nesting.... they were killed for sport by free-roaming cats."

FREEDOM's worth reading in spite of its flaws because Franzen has had the courage to write a big readable naturalistic novel with a social agenda, the kind of novel Sinclair Lewis used to write, a style of writing that's so out of style that I for one am extremely grateful that a writer as talented as Franzen is trying to keep it alive.
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Jan 24, 2011 Pang rated it really liked it

Shelves: constant-reader, tob, fiction, 2011, nyt-recommended

FINALLY, I'm done reading this book. It was such a beast! And after contemplating multiple times whether I should just quit reading it, I was glad that I kept going to the bitter end.

The book basically covered almost all of human flaws and failures. The theme was, as the title suggested, freedom: it can be a blessing or a curse. I felt so bogged down as the subject was so DEEE-pressing, and Franzen's writing didn't help. The pace for more than half of the book was just painful for me. I looked a FINALLY, I'm done reading this book. It was such a beast! And after contemplating multiple times whether I should just quit reading it, I was glad that I kept going to the bitter end.

The book basically covered almost all of human flaws and failures. The theme was, as the title suggested, freedom: it can be a blessing or a curse. I felt so bogged down as the subject was so DEEE-pressing, and Franzen's writing didn't help. The pace for more than half of the book was just painful for me. I looked and searched for reasons to keep going. Patty whining and self-pity was very annoying to me. Walter's wimpyness didn't exactly win a medal in my heart either, though at least he tried to be as genuine as possible and more so than other characters. These two "are incredibly wrong for each other and stuck in a monotonous and needy relationship." Richard and Joey were far from being angels. The one character that Franzen didn't really get into was Jessica, and I'm not sure why he didn't.

Despite all the things I didn't like about this book, I'd grown to care for the characters. Even though Patty was annoying, she tried to redeem herself and do right again. Walter man-up and sought for happiness for himself by being with Lalitha even if it might had seem wrong in his daughter's eyes. And when all the characters came back together in the end, I had a sense that everyone matured. All was forgiven and that we can mend broken relationship despite all the pains it had caused.

One of many parts that stuck out in my mind was by Walter when he, Lalitha, Richard, and Jessica were in brainstorming session about Free Space:

People came to this country for either money or freedom. If you don't have money, you cling on to your freedoms all the more angrily. Even if smoking kills you, even if you can't afford to feed your kids, even if your kids are getting shot down by maniacs with assault rifles. You may be poor, but the one thing nobody can take a way from you is the freedom to fuck up your life whatever way you want to.

Not that it was an eye-opener for me, but I liked how Franzen had summarized it. "...freedom to fuck up your life whatever way you want to." Patty knew that she was stuck in perpetual self-destruction, but she didn't want to get out. Similar to Walter. And similar to Richard. The only one that came out of it, to me, was Joey.

I wanted to hate this book, but in the end it left me too much to ponder. The book, however, could be a lot shorter. Editing, editing, editing next time, Mr. Franzen. ...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Miriam rated it liked it

Shelves: 2013, best-of-2013

I really hate the star system for these kinds of books.

I'm not sure how to review this book. It's not the great American novel, but I see the potential. Franzen is no slouch but the novel suffered from too much observation (if astute) and not enough edge. It's like Franzen can recognize the issues but is to close to comment on them effectively (usefully?). I recognized myself and my generation but was neither affirmed (not a bad thing) or challenged. ...more

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Oct 06, 2010 Kathy rated it really liked it

I liked this story far more than four stars, though not quite five. Some parts were almost painful in their honest portrayal of, well, my generation's passions. The story drags a bit in the middle, but never becomes painfully slow. Ultimately, _Freedom_ made me happy to be a human. To me, that makes it qualify as Art. ...more

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Sep 19, 2010 Al rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2010-books

The beginning of this book is fantastic, but thing go downhill from there. I actually think if you haven't read The Corrections you will probably enjoy this a lot more.

He is a great writer but there was just way too much here that was over-the-top ridiculous and not enjoyable.

It definitely does not live up to the hype. ...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Jeanne rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2011-reads

I'm swimming against the current of rave reviews. This book was awful. The high point might have been the vivid description of Joey's poop and digging through it to find a ring. Life is too short to waste it reading this. ...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Barbara rated it it was ok

Shelves: my-kindle-books, book-club, contemporary-fiction

I'm giving two stars, only because I do not enjoy reading this many pages. The last two chapters were the best, and, even though I was glad to finally end this read, I wanted to find out what happened Patty and Walter. This was my Book Club's choice. ...more

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