A review by daniell
Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen
4.0
After digesting this collection of various essays from 2011-2006, a few things are clear:
-JF sees the world as a swirling mess of indefinite meaning, a bath of complex factors, an array of conflicting, unresolved tones. This more than anything else is the single meaning through which this book might be read.
-JF loves fiction and this collection includes many reviews of novels. After reading his reviews I am excited to read these suggestions. Seemingly all of the books reviewed were ambiguous in meaning, and this seems owing to his penchant for either ambiguity or ambiguous literature.
-JF is a much a novelist as a reporter, and many of these pieces are excellent articles of extended journalism in the theme of adventure-essay, the best one being his story linking the faux-animal driver cover to their production factory in China, to an economic tour or the region, to a brush with local bird watchers.
-JF likes birds. Another essay here covers the state of bird hinting in Malta and the veritable swirl of human complexity surrounding overharvesting, regional traditions of consumption, and the moral implications of it all.
-The flagship essay is great, claiming David Brooks' Sydney Award for 2011, and is a sustained meditation on loneliness, internal strength, and the natural world. Franzen is well-connected to the world of passion and feeling that his late friend DFW fought with till his death. Franzen's depiction of DFW is surprisingly unsympathetic, but neither is it mean, it's simply an observation of the man's life as one on a somewhat self-imposed island. The sense of salty desolation this essay impresses remains vivid to me.
-Second to "Farther Away" (the second selection) is the first selection, his speech to Kenyon College upon graduation. "Pain Won't Kill You" is his message, and for having no real action plan, no three-step agenda, and no conventional pieties, it is clear: life is pain, pain is coming to you in ways you will not expect and cannot foresee, and that is an okay thing; be of good cheer.
I recall attempting to read "How To Be Alone," a book of essays he published in 2003, and seriously disliking his sentence structures. He is much more readable in this collection, auguring nothing but an upward trend for his future output.
-JF sees the world as a swirling mess of indefinite meaning, a bath of complex factors, an array of conflicting, unresolved tones. This more than anything else is the single meaning through which this book might be read.
-JF loves fiction and this collection includes many reviews of novels. After reading his reviews I am excited to read these suggestions. Seemingly all of the books reviewed were ambiguous in meaning, and this seems owing to his penchant for either ambiguity or ambiguous literature.
-JF is a much a novelist as a reporter, and many of these pieces are excellent articles of extended journalism in the theme of adventure-essay, the best one being his story linking the faux-animal driver cover to their production factory in China, to an economic tour or the region, to a brush with local bird watchers.
-JF likes birds. Another essay here covers the state of bird hinting in Malta and the veritable swirl of human complexity surrounding overharvesting, regional traditions of consumption, and the moral implications of it all.
-The flagship essay is great, claiming David Brooks' Sydney Award for 2011, and is a sustained meditation on loneliness, internal strength, and the natural world. Franzen is well-connected to the world of passion and feeling that his late friend DFW fought with till his death. Franzen's depiction of DFW is surprisingly unsympathetic, but neither is it mean, it's simply an observation of the man's life as one on a somewhat self-imposed island. The sense of salty desolation this essay impresses remains vivid to me.
-Second to "Farther Away" (the second selection) is the first selection, his speech to Kenyon College upon graduation. "Pain Won't Kill You" is his message, and for having no real action plan, no three-step agenda, and no conventional pieties, it is clear: life is pain, pain is coming to you in ways you will not expect and cannot foresee, and that is an okay thing; be of good cheer.
I recall attempting to read "How To Be Alone," a book of essays he published in 2003, and seriously disliking his sentence structures. He is much more readable in this collection, auguring nothing but an upward trend for his future output.