A review by ashrafulla
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
4.0
I ended up loathing every character in this book for their whiny deficiencies, which is probably part of the reason I loved this book. There was no hero or good guy to me; every person was not just flawed, but flawed in a way that made me annoyed with them. Alfred's idiotic stubbornness, Enid's annoying shallowness, Chip's pathetic intellectualism, Denise's pathetic confusion, and Gary's holier-than-thou arrogance. Even the minor characters (Caroline, the Passafaros) got under my skin. Instead or maybe as a result, I enjoyed the trials and tribulations.
The writing was excellent as well; Franzen intermittently adds these really long paragraphs that detail psychological moods during the small action going around. The pace of the action fits the pace of the diction: fast and jumbled when things are fast and jumbled like Chip's contemplations, sharp and quick when things are sharp and quick like long conversations. It leads to an overall sense, from diction to organization to plot, that you are on a well-told ride of a story.
Disclaimer: this read has a hump in it similar to the hump Chip Lambert talks about in his screenplay. That hump is Chip's first story; if you can digest that, then the rest of the story is very good.
The writing was excellent as well; Franzen intermittently adds these really long paragraphs that detail psychological moods during the small action going around. The pace of the action fits the pace of the diction: fast and jumbled when things are fast and jumbled like Chip's contemplations, sharp and quick when things are sharp and quick like long conversations. It leads to an overall sense, from diction to organization to plot, that you are on a well-told ride of a story.
Disclaimer: this read has a hump in it similar to the hump Chip Lambert talks about in his screenplay. That hump is Chip's first story; if you can digest that, then the rest of the story is very good.