Shoshi B

The Corrections Where to begin? How do I articulate my disgust? This is the most mindbogglingly, obnoxious novel I have ever read and I’m pretty well read. I have suffered through some really bad novels but none as pretentious, or as long, as this. There is not one single redeeming quality in any of these characters. I mean, why do we care? The answer is, we don’t and we shouldn’t. I never appreciated when Oprah “discovered” novels for her book club and claimed their effervescent uniqueness only to realize that these books, for the most part, are mediocre at best. Jonathan Franzen benefited from her ridiculous praise and he still put her down because he is just too good for her. The entitlement of Franzen bleeds through his characters making them utterly unlikable. Nobody needs to read a 50 page description of any one single feeling or moment, especially when it is about incontinence. This long winded dementia based hallucination wasn’t necessary to understand its ridiculousness and pain. I don’t need to read 100 pages describing a biotechnology seminar (that just so happens to take place in their hometown, how convenient) for a drug solution that is not only impossible (even the author’s description makes little to no sense) but is the representation of the anger and disappointment brewing through a belligerent selfish man who has no right to feel that way. My goodness, pare it down and use your words in a more useful manner. Sometimes less really is more. I expect Franzen wants us all to feel stupid for not grasping the insanity in his so-called patented drug treatment. I have to wonder if any research into any of the “fields of expertise” was done to make it worth suffering through the endless description of patents and biotech nonsense. I would have to say no. If I had to identify with a character it would be Enid but only in the sense that she has an overbearing, obstinate husband. Beyond that she is just a horrible, selfish and shallow woman who regrets her earlier choices but continues to do nothing about them other than complain and make her children feel responsible for said choices. The delusion she lives under and the demands she thrusts on her loser children was just too much to bear. I finished it under protest; it became a mission just to finish! If you like torture read it but I highly recommend every sane human being take a pass. It was just so painful.