You may have heard from, oh, I don’t know, the Time Magazine cover or the Vogue profile or the rave reviews or the Picoult/Weiner spat or the author video where Franzen says he doesn’t like author videos or the fact that the President of the United States was spotted with it….. anyway, you might have heard that Jonathan Franzen has a new novel out today, his first since The Corrections, and it’s a pretty big deal.
I haven’t yet read Freedom, but from the early reviews this novel is everything that our Internet-manic, high concept craving, supposedly dumbed down culture is not. It “[deconstructs] a family’s history to give us a wide-angled portrait of the country as it rumbled into the materialistic 1990s.” (NY Times) It explores “the unresolved tensions, the messiness of emotion, of love and longing, that possesses even the most willfully ordinary of lives.” (LA Times).
You can’t exactly Tweet a summary of what this book is about. Whether you like Franzen’s books or not (as you can probably tell: I’m a big fan), it’s a novel that punches a gaping hole through the remarkably persistent idea that the publishing industry, and the culture as a whole, is only interested in high concept schlock and the lowest common denominator.
On the other hand, Freedom, in its bigness, in its You Must Read This To Be a Thinking Person in America, is already a novel of the times – the big books getting steadily bigger, accumulating hype with gravitational pull, and then there’s everything else fighting for attention.
We seem to be a culture that is simultaneously craving books that fit our exact specifications at the same time that we want the shared experience of reading something, loving it, and sharing that experience with our friends (virtual and real life). Culture seems to be moving two contradictory ways – fracturing into ever-smaller niches at the same time that it’s coalescing around a few massively popular books and movies. We normally think of the blockbusters in terms of James Patterson, Suzanne Collins, and Stephenie Meyer, but even in literary fiction you have your Freedoms and Oscar Waos.
And in a still further sign of the time, even though Franzen once said of his disdain for novels in e-book form, “Am I fetishizing ink and paper? Sure, and I’m fetishizing truth and integrity too,” Freedom is available for sale as an e-book simultaneously with the hardcover.
What do you think? Will you be reading Freedom?
p.shaw-
Are you referring to the post yesterday?
But basically, there's a difference between high concept and high concept shlock. High concept doesn't have to be a bad thing. But anyway I was just referring to a stereotype about culture.
Yes–it will be a while because of I have a lot on my plate that interferes with the attention a good book deserves. It took me awhile before I read The Corrections and though that was years ago, there are scenes and images I still remember. Alfred and Enid in particular resonated–I know many people like them. I became angry at the disconnect caused by Alfred's narcissism and Enid's retreat into the cruise fantasy and Christmas defined by the sad useless gifts she sends her grown children. So yes, I am very interested in reading Freedom.
As I am a college student devoted to the brick-heavy books assigned by my lovely professors who believe we have all the time in the world to work on only their classes, I must say I shall not be reading this book any time soon. :/ It shall be added to my list of Books to Read, though. 😀
~TRA
https://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
My check goes in the No column. The 90's? It just doesn't sound interesting. I want a book to take me to another world, so to speak, not take me to one that I've already been to.
I'll definitely at least give it a look-see, but only after I finish all else that's on my plate. :]
Anne- I know- I'm sorry! I over-reacted.
You made a very good point.
Team Franzen
The Corrections had me with the fish in the pants chapter and the talking poop hallucinations. And that's not even talking about how great the book was.
For they corporate promoters of this product and the early reader apparatchik to succeed in creating a stir, they must honestly believe in the stories authenticity as a literary tale, and also have a heartfelt feeling that it serves as a timely arrival to the market; that it serves as a mirror of the just recent past's who, what, when, where, why, and hows; of a lot of people's generalized internal mulling, musing and generalized thinking on recent culture and family. I'll read it when it cools off to avoid an accidental Vulcan Mind Meld in the Reader-Sphere.
Franzen is a GREAT author, and the Time Cover, the Weiner dust up and Obama buying an ARC created a lot of buzz. I thought THE CORRECTIONS was brilliant, and I'm looking forward to reading FREEDOM. The excerpt in the New Yorker was so good. Franzen is a writer who marries deep feeling (real feeling, not touchy-feeling) to craft and the result is superb.
You betcha I'm reading FREEDOM. I finished THE CORRECTIONS last week and was wowed. I'm hoping FREEDOM's as slow a read (slow as in slow cooking, slow to savor every wonderfully constructed sentence) as TC.
Is FREEDOM (and Tinkers and Oscar Wao and While the Great World Spins) a sign of changing tastes, though? Who knows. Maybe the economy is finally leading people to reflect on what is important — family, values, the simple things. We'll see. Peace…
I read The Corrections for my book club, so I'd read Freedom if it was selected for book club but probably not otherwise–although I do think he's a talented writer.
In effort to keep literary fiction alive and well, I most certainly will read it. Though I didn't like The Corrections that doesn't mean I don't like the author.
Hey Mira-
Wanted to chime in that I'm with you about smart people liking to read entertaining books, and not just lit fic. You should've seen my SAT scores! Not to mention my scary-smartypants grades. And I like my books as fun and trashynas they come.
Deconstructing society's commercialism? Class structure in a post-colonial world? Analysis of suburban isolation and loss of identity? All sound like great backstory for some horny vampires to battle sexy werewolf aliens!
But a book that's heavy on purpose, so as to " enlighten" and make people "think.". Eh, I'm not so into that.
I will eventually read it, if only to support intelligent fiction, but, like some others, I don't care for the juggernaut approach.
I also intend to check out the Jodi Picoult brouhaha.
Then again, I might forget both authors and read Ulysses.
It's funny, ironic and whatever, but I've only ever written genre fiction and (mostly) read it; but the few literary fiction novels I've read I've enjoyed as much or much more than the former. Genre tends to be too much same ol' same ol, while literary is refreshingly original and meaningful and not about something happening on a grand scale which becomes ironically boring – for me. I've hardly read anything for a few decades, though, so I'm not really qualified to judge; but that has been my impression. I go for genre because I like the fantastic and out-of-this-world, but it's not usually done well, while literary fiction about the every day world is mostly done well; it seems to me. It's the small moments in life – rather than the life-threatening escapade – that can be the most striking and memorable and what we're all more likely to experience. I hate that fantasy has become tied to sword and sorcery type things, because fantasy could lead the way in speculative fiction and be the front-runner in proposing different concepts, opinions and life-styles. Culture can't remain static. It must keep changing and evolving, so fantasy fiction is the ideal vehicle for introducing new concepts to inspire these changes. However this potential hasn't been mined to any great degree with the mostly repetitive and limited themes of the sword and sorcery focused stories.
I applaud Stephanie Meyer for introducing a new slant on the vampire genre. This is what all genre writers should be aiming for, I think.
In regards to Freedom, I'm not sure I will be reading it. I can't seem to get a handle on what it's about. I want to read stories I relate to and don't care how popular or brillant they might be.
Yeah, sure, I'll read it. I love literary fiction. It can join the books on the heaving to-be-read shelf!
I didn't know there was a "You Must Read This To Be a Thinking Person in America" list. Since I wish to be a thinking American, I WILL READ THIS BOOK! And I will NOT stop at page 14! I WILL READ THE WHOLE THING!
i'll be reading it. big franzen fan. i don't think his books are flawless, but the bits that work are pure joy. try reading some of his non-fiction too – 'the discomfort zone' has some mind-blowing passages. he's writing about real estate agents and peanuts cartoons and it's riveting. don't ask me how he does it.
he writes extensively about the place in contemporary culture (admittedly 1990s culture, when the essays were written, but much of it still relevant today) for the 'big' literary novel, the social novel. worth reading if you're interested in this particular debate.
I wasn't really aware of Franzen until this book came out. A part of me has no desire to read it simply because of having it shoved in my face so to speak. So many other books I want to read, so if I do read it, it shall be a while down the road.
Freedom is a treasure we're all engaged in. Franzen might have a different take on it. I'm in.
Yes. Definitely. I will read this and not because I'm being told to read it. I think it sounds interesting and I'd like to take a look at the "me generation" from a writer as profound as Franzen. I hope he doesn't disappoint me.
Just like my love of food (I have diverse tastes) my reading choices are also diverse. I can easily toss a Franzen into my mix. But first, I'm reading Jennifer Crusie's new stand alone, Maybe This Time. It's a nod to James' The Turn of the Screw. I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on it. today was the release day. Where oh where is UPS?
For the naysayers, in Jonathan Franzen's interview in Time, he mentions how he has to compete with the television, movies, the internet, all of it. He goes into how he tried to make sure every page kept turning, not so unlike the aspirations of the genre writers. He knows what he needs to do, and was humble but not apologetic for how he does it. It seems that all of us should be looking for more depth in him than what could be gleaned from internet blogs regarding his character. You may not like his book, but as aspiring writers as most of us are, I would hope for more thought on the topic. "Sounds boring" or "he's egotistical" are just too simple. I've been reading this blog for so long, and you are all better than that.
So, I aspire to writing as great, as concise. But I wouldn't expect everyone to like it. Nor would I expect to be loved by all. The flat characters are the ones that aren't real, in art or in life.
And just to be clear, I love literary fiction. And I love a great fun story. I ordered Paranormalcy (Kiersten White), and Freedom. The former because I follow her blog, her voice is fantastic, and I read the sample happily surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I look to different things from each one, but I read. And I love to read. There is room for everyone. Don't sell yourself short by reiterating opinions that were stale when they were initially concepted.
I am writing a story. A story that I hope you will read and enjoy. And I imagine most of you hope for the same thing. I aspire to write something that is as good as what I like to read. I don't read genre, but there are some genre writers I adore. I watch foreign films, and Desperate Housewives of NJ. And I'm sure there is plenty there to trash me for.
I wish both Jonathan Franzen and Kiersten White the best, because to be a writer and survive you have indeed succeeded. I have enough sense to know that I can learn something from both of them. And I do not believe that my writing is better or I grow stronger, by cutting down the efforts of others.
It certainly doesn't make my writing any better.
Write your story, do your best, and hope that people who should see more to the story, do.
I enjoyed THE CORRECTIONS but didn't love it, so I'll probably read FREEDOM eventually, but there are some other books I want to get to first.
Probably because I read The Corrections in grad school, I have a bad taste in my mouth for his work so I'll pass.
I'm definitely looking forward to reading it. I loved The Corrections. Franzen doesn't come off that well in the press, but the guy can write. Any serious writer needs to read his work.
Lyra said:
"Sounds boring" or "he's egotistical" are just too simple. I've been reading this blog for so long, and you are all better than that.
I agree. Thanks, Lyra! And I'd like to add something for everyone who's ever complained that the publishing houses don't publish enough intelligent books or the movie industry doesn't make enough intelligent movies. Movie studios base their decisions on whether or not to make a certain type of movie or hire a certain director again based on box office sales on opening weekends. Publishing houses base their decisions on whether or not to try publishing a certain kind of book again based on Amazon rank, number of weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, and other such indicators of sales figures for certain types of books. If people don’t buy intelligent books because they can’t stand what advertisers do for those books, then the publishing houses will publish more dumbed-down books for which people love the advertising practically as much as the books. (And reading library or used copies doesn’t add anything at all to the sales figures for a book, so if you can afford it, it's helpful to buy a new copy of the book to add to its sales figures. It's a matter of voting with your dollar.)
Sounds awful. And the fact that the publishing industry seems to be pushing it is definitely not a good sign.
Not something for me. Not saying it's a bad book, but doesn't appeal to me.
However, having worked in a publishing warehouse, I'd love to see the skids and skids of hardcovers racing out there a few weeks ago to all the eager bookstores…
… and in 30 days skids and skids of returns coming back to restock the shelves with said book.
Sometimes the hype just doesn't overcome what the public really ends up buying.
😉
I don't know, generally if somebody says YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK, then I become a sheep. But I also got burned this summer by "The Passage" so….
Yea, I'm going to read it.
On another note, if Picoult and Weiner don't stop calling it chick lit themselves, then nothing will ever change.
I'll order this one from the library and try to get through it like I tried to get through The Corrections. I did buy The Corrections. It was peer pressure. That year it was the book of choice here in NY and the best people carried it around to show everyone they were reading it.
I grown up a lot since then and I don't care what they see me reading anymore 🙂
Though I won't pay for it, I will give it a chance.
the hype has passed me by, might have something to do with not being US based. the cover, however, is stunning! love it.
I thought the prose in The Corrections was admirable, but I disliked all the characters and found the book very grim. Life's too short to read another grim book with dislikeable characters (which even some of the glowing reviews for Freedom are noting). So, no, I won't read it.
Meh, the subject doesn't really interest me. Maybe someday, if my book club chooses it as a "to read" (which they probably will, since they always like to read the books that are hyped about :P)
I read the first few pages and thought it was dreadful and dull. No thanks.
Gosh, yes! Loved The Corrections and can't wait to love Freedom too.
i am reading Freedom. downloaded it to my Sony last night at 10.30 pm when all the bookstores were closed.
Frazen is overrated. The Corrections was a boring book. Sure, the guy can write but he doesn't grab me at all. Borges said never to read a book just because a critic told you to do so. Read it because you enjoy it.
Franzen is overrated. The Corrections was a boring book. Sure, the guy can write but he doesn't grab me at all. Borges said never to read a book just because a critic told you to do so. Read it because you enjoy it.
Thanks, just looking to plug into your vernacular and viewpoint. Schlock for me needs the air quotes around "high."
Calling it the Picoult/Weiner "spat" is sexist.
Nathan,
I too read the article on Franzen in Time and became interested in reading Freedom.
Last night I downloaded a trial of Freedom (the first 86 pages) to my ipad (less than three seconds, amazing).
The point of this is that as I began reading his new book a realized that I really liked his writing style. My next thought was not that I should download the whole ebook but rather that I wanted to buy the hardcover.
There's something so much more tangible about the physical book that helps me connect with the author.
I bought the digital version of Freedom on 8/30 and it downloaded to my iPhone on 8/31. I would NEVER have bought the hardback, by the way.
I have started reading and well, so far I'm not impressed at all. In fact, I'm offended and angry to yet another Big Important Book by a white male who utterly fails to say anything true about how women experience the world. I'm hoping my opinion will change as I continue reading.
That is a GORGEOUS cover.
Daisy Harris – thanks. You do sound like a smarty! 🙂 And I clicked your link – your books look HOT. 😉
Nathan, I re-read your post, and having gotten over my assorted insecurities, I want to say that I liked your observation about the current culture. The internet is making the world a much smaller place. On this site alone, I've talked to people from halfway across the world on a regular, and casual, basis. And I think you're right that it's causing both lots of small niche groups to form, but also a much bigger group to form, so that the BIG news gets much, much BIGGER. What that means is yet to be seen, but it's very INTERESTING.
One of the surest signs that a book is not worth reading is that the publishing industry tries to make an event out of its release.
It's analogous to the release of a Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Everyone knows it's awful so the men with deep pockets throw money at it until people try it out of curiosity just to see what all the (falsely-generated) buzz is about. Then it's deemed a success and the bland author/filmmaker gets a chance to make another piece of mediocre work. It's a sickening cycle.
There are exceptions, of course, but Franzen falls pretty squarely in the Michael Bay zone.
I only read books I like. I don't care if other people like it or think I'm not a thinking person because I don't like it.
I finally read Twilight, but only because my daughter made me. It was okay. She liked it and I'm happy for her. We both think Robert Pattinson was much cuter as Cedric Diggory though.
hank-
Disagreement is fine, but personal attacks such as that don't have a place around these parts.
Nope, I'm allergic to pop-lit-fic Oprah-approved nonsense. Last one I tried was The Road, and I'm still trying to reacquire a good mood.
Scott, I hate Cormac McCarthy too but Franzen is excellent.
So for ONCE the publishing industry hypes a bona fide literary novel and everyone disses it because it's too hyped? That's a joke!
I will read it because he's a great writer and I loved all three of his other novels. Very few writers make me anxiously await their next work — Franzen is one of them.
I say THANK GOD finally someone worthy of the hype is receiving it.
OK. I've been discussing this issue with myself since reading it on your blog earlier today.
I'm glad to see you've already got another post up…I'll tackle angst next…
I might read FREEDOM. I guess I probably ought to, especially since you recommend Franzen.
But I gotta say–and I'm not gonna talk smack about any writer, especially one I haven't read–the excerpts from the "hype" reviews you gave us don't really inspire me.
Perhaps most reviewers, or it is hoped a large number of readers, came "of age" during the '90s. For those of us who did during the '70s, for instance, a reprise of dysfunctional family life during a period of near full-employment, economic excesses, and a general sense that life, for the most part, was better for many than it had ever been before–even or especially for returning Gulf War Veterans, who received the parades and welcome and thanks for their service after essentially a year compared to, say, those who spent two years with shorter life-expectancy in the jungles of Vietnam fighting a war they weren't even all that keen on, it seems like an attempt at writing a microcosm of the "history" lived by most readers, or potential readers.
And this: "the unresolved tensions, the messiness of emotion, of love and longing, that possesses even the most willfully ordinary of lives." (LA Times).
So. We're to read about willfully ordinary lives? Well, I did wonder years ago why all characters in novels (of a certain period) were all prep-school or Harvard or Princeton kids (The Last Convertible, an excellent read).
And then along came William Kennedy and "Ironweed."
Like I said, I probably will read it. Especially if someone else buys it for me and puts it in front of me.
I have no doubt Franzen is every bit as good as you say he is, since you say he is and I haven't, to date, read anything he's written.
But I looked at some of David Eggers stuff in the past, and have mentioned several times my problems with The Shipping News, and again I'm left with curiousity: why all the hype? If someone's writing is so breathtaking, can't someone just say: "here's another Joyce book," or "no one captures the contemporary scene with as gorgeous prose as…"
I mean, is the subject of the novel what makes it good? Or is it that the writer, being so good, makes the subject of the novel interesting to everyone?
And if you can't read it–like with Joyce, or Shakespeare, for some people–is that why people say it's great?
Ernest Hemingway wrote some great stuff. His themes are often buried below the surface of what the novel appears to be tackling, to be revealed only on re-reading or contemplation.
But he is eminently readable. He is "easy to get," at least on the surface.
Much as I appreciate Joyce, and for that matter Pound and cummings and Stein's manipulation of language as part of their art, I don't appreciate people manipulating language just to do it, especially if by such manipulation, I can't get anything out of reading it.
So. I look forward to finding a new literary voice. And if it's Franzen, I'll be happy for him.
And us.
But I'll be one of the first to not sell Jodi or any others, whose books haven't been touted as so "literary," short.
I recently opened The Corrections and immediately noted that Franzen opened with weather, a supposed no no. Of course anything can be done by some writers. As it is with the everything-must- be- in- a- scene meme. Not so in literary fiction, which if your leaf through the pages is a dense narrative, both external and internal with scant snippets of recalled dialogue, if that. What his books do is show a snapshot of the culture at a point in history, and of course, showcase the author's political views. You best not try that in a genre novel.