Well that was hours and hours I'll never get back (The Corrections)

[Lisa]

The Corrections may possibly be the worst book I ever forced my way through - Hated it, Hated it

I have never had such a hate-on for a book - I thought that in the past I had read some stinkers but... I seriously wanted to hurl this mammoth thing across the room, well..until I realize I would need to do some wall repair...

Could one drag a more uninteresting saga on more...Enough already about Midland Railway...

Perhaps my expectations of this book were all too great after all the hype - finalist for the Pulitzer my ass... man oh man, Jonathan Franzen you owe me big....

[Sean]

I actually enjoyed "The Corrections." To me, it was a novelization about how the so-called "Greatest Generation" and their repression of emotions, inability to relate to the children they felt they had to have, and twisted morals warped all future generations.

That said--yes, the damn railway got too much attention.

[Judy]

I didn't have to force myself through "The Corrections," but I have to say it was not at all enjoyable. I found it depressing, at times disgusting (skipped over those parts) and every single character in the book was weak, cruel, self-absorbed and/or hypocritical. I didn't like any of these people and I didn't care what happened to them.

I read it because I was impressed that Jonathan Franzen would turn down Oprah, which is the literary equivalent of winning the lottery and I only paid a dime for the book at a Library Fundraiser sale. But after reading his book, I think Oprah's Book club was much better off without him.

[Meredith]

I, too, hated this book. I read it because of the hype and forced myself to finish. At first I thought I had a bad attitude because I was going through a bad breakup while I was reading it, but no, it was just bad!

[Galen]

I couldn't stand this book! And it was literally the only thing I had to read on a remote island where no one else spoke English, so I had to finish it. It was so negative--I read it right after Madame Bovary, and it made Madame Bovary seem like a ray of light. I agree that most families have issues, that aging sucks and is often misunderstood, that everyone is unhappy in his own special way. But you know, very few complain constantly. Not in Franzen's world...or maybe he just can't write anything positive. There were funny moments in the book, moments I might like to recommend to friends, but they were buried in such drab writing about such drab people who had such uncreative ways of dealing with their unhappiness (except dad...he was well-written).