Book Review - The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS EXTREME OVER ANALYSIS AND MAY BE PRETENTIOUS TO SOME READERS.


This novel was first released almost 10 years ago to significant critical and commercial success. ‘The first great American novel of the 21st century' is one example of the many plaudits that have come its way. Following his latest release, ‘Freedom’, Franzen adorned the cover of Time magazine, an extremely rare event for a fiction writer in this day and age.

The Corrections is the story of an American family. The elderly parents live in a dull mid western city and their three grown up children have moved away. The matriarch of the family wants to have one last Christmas together as a family and the narration follows their history both individually and collectively. Along the way Franzen weaves socio-economic, medical, racial and sexual issues and in doing so makes a hugely powerful statement on the state of not only the modern family, but society on a broader level.

It’s an incredibly ambitious novel and when released on 11 September, 2001, it was at the forefront of an increasing critical introspective examination within popular culture of the dysfunctional behemoth that is the US of A. Expanding further on the historical context that applies here, aside from 9/11 and the can of worms that opened, the watershed movie in American cinema, American Beauty had recently won the best picture Oscar. These 2 projects explore similar themes; however Beauty didn’t go far enough in challenging the facade of the American dream enough to be judged a masterpiece. The Corrections does. It lays out on the table the themes and characters of this family tale, then picks each up and dissects it under a surgical strength lamp.

Nothing escapes Franzen’s microscope. He delves into the dark moral crevices between our comfy sofas to such an extent that only a saint would not blush on occasion when what he finds is a little too close to home. And it’s all carried out with plenty of humour and use of metaphor and imagery that challenges and interests on every page. As for the characters, we care, despite all there faults. For all its heavy themes, it’s a novel with heart. Masterpiece.