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Book Review of The Corrections

The Corrections
The Corrections
Author: Jonathan Franzen
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
wantonvolunteer avatar reviewed on + 84 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


This book was so way over-hyped, and by so many intelligent lovely people whose opinions I normally tend to agree with. To quote Alfred Lambert, "Well! I'm not following. I mean, I'd leave it to your discretion, but this makes no sense." If this book were 300 pages shorter, minus most of Franzen's intense tangential forays into cryptic jargon peculiar to matters medical, academic, financial, and Scandinavian (to name just a few), it would be so much better. Yes, the title is clever, and refers to different applications throughout the story, I get that, but the point is so belabored!

I don't hate The Corrections, I actually liked reading about the dysfunctional Lambert family (mother Enid, father Alfred, and damaged adult children Gary, Chip and Denise). Even though I was bored by Franzen's superfluous babble and miffed by his pretentiousness, in between he managed to make me laugh out loud, like at Al's demented, "Chip, I don't understand this blanket, CAN YOU HELP ME?"