Freedom
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen is a good book by a good writer, but it’s not as good as “The Corrections.” The humor is missing, and there are some stretches where the characters sort of sprawl out and inhabit a vast space of their own boredom, spilling over a bit into mine. There is something about it all that failed to capture me. Perhaps the Berglands were just a little too over-wrought… a little too crafted in their perfections pre-destined to fail. Not necessarily predictable, but like I say, just kind of boring, and no matter what crisis they faced I never felt invested in their lives. I
That said, I think it’s worth a read and at some level I enjoyed it. Though the humor doesn’t match “The Corrections,” Walter Bergland’s melt-down is worth the read, and at a certain level I think Franzen pretty well outlines the zeitgeist, and boredom may be a huge part of our times — not necessarily boredom in and of itself, but that which I read about in the papers and on the web… a void that desires meaning, value, and to be entertained.