52 Books, Week 3: The Corrections

Coming back to Michigan from Florida was really really disheartning. Especially when there is a 50 degree temperature difference in the two states. Possibly even more heartbreaking is the fact that I caught a cute little cold, from my even cuter niece. Ahhh, the cost of being with family. And speaking of family...

"All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" - Tolstoy

Franzen gained significant notoriety [after gentle spelling correction] for this book, when Oprah selected it as a book club awardee, and then didn't allow him to come on the show when he made some negative comments regarding her previous picks. But don't let that mess you up, it still reads really well (although it does get bogged down in the middle).

I read a previous Franzen book, "How To Be Alone" which was an interesting collection of pretty dispartate essays about a lot of the themes that ended up in his novel.

The family that composes the story in The Corrections, is really really fucked up. But more than just a general story about a small town family, its also a commentary on 21st century society. Academic culture, sexual curiousness, captialism, America's drug culture, etc. etc. They all get taken a swing at with varying levels of success, but at its root, its still just a good book.