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Blogs by Jerome Parisse The Corrections 3/9/2011 4:57:11 PMPhew! I made it through to the end of The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen)! I started it with great expectations, since some of the reviews are fantastic and a friend of mine whose judgement I trust loved it. I found it painful. Franzen can certainly write well, he is witty and funny. But I found that unfortunately his writing turned too often into verbal diarrhea. In fact I felt as if Franzen was pleasing himself instead of trying – even a little – to please his readers. It’s writing that draws attention to itself, something that I can’t stand. Each of the main characters in the book is damn awful, and impossible to like (to say the least). There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, except that reading more than five hundred pages about their lives when you don’t care the least about them quickly becomes a chore. There’s also heaps of secondary characters who muddle the story. Having said that, I must agree that Franzen has a knack of getting you into the characters’ head, of making you feel you somehow understand them. As a book that aims to criticise society, it does a good job, but couldn’t it have done so while providing readers with (a little) pleasure at the same time? The Corrections was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It also attracted attention when it was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club, but Franzen later expressed worries that this selection could detract male readers from buying the book. It was subsequently taken off the Club’s list. Oprah obviously forgave him because she picked his latest novel, Freedom, as her 64th Book Club selection. And yes, you guessed right, I won’t be reading it.
Post a Comment More Blogs by Jerome Parisse • Body Swap Interview and Yunnan Trip... - Thursday, March 10, 2011 • The Corrections - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 • Buried - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 • Black Swan - Monday, March 7, 2011 • Educating Rita - Sunday, February 27, 2011 • Bidrman, by Mo hayder - Sunday, February 27, 2011 • The Insomnia of Stars - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 • If I Stay, by Gayle Forman - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 • Blacklands by Belinda bauer - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 • Where is Marc Levy's respect for his readers? - Saturday, February 12, 2011 • The Wings of Leo Spencer at $10 only! - Wednesday, February 9, 2011 • Boracay, twenty years later - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 • Hereafter - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 • Gone (Mo Hayder) - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 • Free e-books until 6 February! - Monday, January 31, 2011 • Two Brothers - Sunday, January 30, 2011 • Miserere - Saturday, January 29, 2011 • Shanghai - Saturday, January 22, 2011 • 3 e-books for free until 6 January! - Thursday, January 20, 2011 • A Spot of Bother - Thursday, January 20, 2011 • Sarah's Key - Wednesday, January 19, 2011 • The Tree - Tuesday, January 18, 2011 • Norwegian Wood - Tuesday, January 18, 2011 • The American - Tuesday, January 18, 2011 • Eat Pray Love - Saturday, January 8, 2011 • 50 literature ideas you really need to know, by John Sutherland - Saturday, January 8, 2011 • Aftershock - Thursday, January 6, 2011 • Room by Emma Donoghue - Tuesday, January 4, 2011 • Harry Potter and the Deahtly Hallows - Friday, December 17, 2010 • The art of happiness - Thursday, December 16, 2010 • The Scold's Bridle by Minette Walters - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 • Worst film ever? - Sunday, December 12, 2010 • Trailer for BODY SWAP - Friday, December 10, 2010 • Hong Kong Murders - Monday, December 6, 2010 • The kids are all right - Monday, December 6, 2010 • The Killing Fields - My Father's Guests - Tuesday, November 30, 2010 • Interview on Body Swap and publishing on Kindle by David Wisehart - Friday, November 26, 2010 • The Animated Version of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival - Monday, November 22, 2010 • What is it about Japan? - Saturday, November 13, 2010 • The Ice House - Sunday, November 7, 2010 • Body Swap - Wednesday, November 3, 2010 • Taipei: the city that reads... - Tuesday, November 2, 2010 • Free royalty-free music - Monday, October 25, 2010 • Trailer for THE WINGS OF LEO SPENCER - Saturday, October 23, 2010 • Reference Material for Learning Chinese - Saturday, October 23, 2010 • The world’s first text message adventure romance with the other side! - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 • Grease.... or a failed English test - Monday, October 18, 2010 • The jungle temples of Angkor, Cambodia - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 • A little lower than the angels - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 • 61 Hours by Lee Child - Friday, October 1, 2010 • The obsessions of Amelie Nothomb - Monday, September 27, 2010 • Kaohsiung, the friendly city - Sunday, September 26, 2010 • A concise history of Hong Kong - Tuesday, September 21, 2010 • Nicaragua, twenty years on... - Monday, September 20, 2010 • We all make mistakes, don't we? - Saturday, September 18, 2010 • Serena - Thursday, September 16, 2010 • Early works: Coben takes us for a ride - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 • Tokyo / The Devil of Nanking - Sunday, September 12, 2010 • Young and bold - Saturday, September 11, 2010 • Gay marriage anyone? - Thursday, September 9, 2010 • iPad anyone? - Wednesday, September 8, 2010 • Online book promotion: The French strike again! - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 • Blood Canticle - Monday, September 6, 2010 • More Vampires! Breaking Dawn and The Passage - Sunday, September 5, 2010 • Blackwood Farm - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 • Animal Kingdom - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 • Breath - Sunday, August 1, 2010 • The Ghost Writer - Date Night - Dragons et al - Thursday, July 29, 2010 • According to Kit - Friday, July 23, 2010 • Playtime - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 • It's all about words... - Monday, July 19, 2010 • Deed to Death - Friday, July 16, 2010 • The Art of Flying - Thursday, July 15, 2010 • A Gate a the Stairs - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 • Twitter: the art of (non) conversation? - Sunday, July 11, 2010 • City of Thieves - Saturday, July 10, 2010 • Gravity and Drift - Thursday, July 8, 2010 • Who says nobody is reading any more? - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 • Watercolours: the travelling artist - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 • Release of "My Sister's Choice" - Monday, July 5, 2010 • Eclipse: the movie vs the book - Saturday, July 3, 2010 • Three chocolate croissants, please! - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 • Paranormal romance: The list goes on - Sunday, June 27, 2010 • Sex and the City - Friday, June 25, 2010 • A great launch - Thursday, June 24, 2010 • Jackhammering, sniffles and gum chewing - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 • New Moon, Stephenie Meyer again - Monday, June 21, 2010 • Reilly: The case for literary fiction - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 • TWILIGHT - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 • Bedroom Farce - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 • Writing for the deaf and the hearing - Monday, June 7, 2010 • A kiss or three - Sunday, June 6, 2010 • Is - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 • A prolific writer - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 • Angels are the new vampires! - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 • The ebook epiphany! - Sunday, May 30, 2010 • Theatre Value Meal: Small, Medium, or Large? - Saturday, May 29, 2010 • Of the importance of detail - Friday, May 28, 2010 • Literary fiction or gothic horror? - Friday, May 28, 2010
