Ratings76
Average rating3.9
Like bookends of the past half century, the two generations of the Lambert family represent two very different aspects of America. Alfred, the patriarch, is a distant, puritanical company man; he is also slipping into Parkinson's-induced dementia. His wife, Enid, is a model Midwestern housewife, at once deferential and controlling. Their three children--Gary, an uptight banker, baffled by his own persistent unhappiness; Chip, and ex-professor now failing as a screenwriter; and Denise, and up-and-coming chief in a hot new restaurant--have little time for Enid and Alfred. But when Enid calls for one last Christmas at the family home, the trajectories of five American lifetimes converge.
With this important, profoundly affecting work, Jonathan Franzen confirms his place in the top tier of American novelists. His unique blend of subversive humor and full-blooded realism makes The Corrections a grandly entertaining family saga.
Reviews with the most likes.
She knew she was telling herself lies, but she didn't know which of the things in her head were the lies and which were the truth.
How can you distinguish the people when everybody pretends to be the same?
Stoner
The Corrections
The Corrections
Franzen's description of dysfunction just didn't hold true for me, and I know dysfunction.
I read this a million years ago, when it was new, but my ambivalent experience with “Freedom” left me wanting to refresh my memory–am I not a Franzen fan, or just not a “Freedom” fan?
Upon re-reading, it became clear that my problem was “Freedom,” not Franzen (my, isn't this is an alliterative review). “The Corrections” was everything I wanted it to be–zany, painfully precise in its portraits of the characters (I swear I will stop with the alliteration), but compassionate towards all their inelegant fumblings.
Anyway, who doesn't love a good family drama (said the psychologist)?
A searing look at family values in America. Along the same lines as American Beauty, but much more masterful in its scope and depth.