Freedom: A Novel

Written by Jonathan Franzen

Narrated by David LeDoux

"Masterful describes not only Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel but also David Ledoux’s reading of the book . . . Ledoux gives a vibrant performance." —AudioFile Magazine

From the National Book Award-winning author of The Corrections, a darkly comedic novel about family.

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world.

But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter's college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become "a very different kind of neighbor," an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Aug 31, 2010
• ISBN: 9781427210500

Jonathan Franzen

Jonathan Franzen’s work includes four novels (The Twenty-Seventh City, Strong Motion, The Corrections, Freedom), two collections of essays (Farther Away, How To Be Alone), a memoir (The Discomfort Zone), and, most recently, The Kraus Project. He is recognised as one of the best American writers of our age and has won many awards. He lives in New York City and Santa Cruz, California.

Reviews for Freedom

[markgalassi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

harsh but a good book

[dubuquer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I did not want to read Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Freedom. It's an Oprah pick, and the big 'O' on the cover smacks too much of daytime television product placement, and that's probably the worst way to encourage me to read any book.Nor did I feel compelled to read Freedom when I heard that Barack Obama requested an advance reading copy. Or did he actually take the presidential motorcade to a bookstore to buy one? I don't know the details, but either way, I heard Obama said it was great.I love BBC's From Our Own Correspondent podcast, but I still wasn't inspired to read Freedom when Mark Mardell quoted the novel in his story about the American Tea Party: "Jonathan Franzen perhaps sums it up aptly in his new best-seller when he says, 'The personality susceptible to the dream of limitless freedom is a personality also prone, should the dream ever sour, to misanthropy and rage.'"No, I did not want to read Freedom, not until I saw my wife Maggie enjoy it so much, curled up in the passenger seat of our car, while I served as designated driver on long trip.Mostly quiet, Maggie would unexpectedly snort and laugh and exclaim, "This has a character from Bob Dylan's hometown in Minnesota. He says Dylan is a 'beautifully pure asshole!'"Then, with the same sheepish grin she had when she told me that James Franco was hosting the Academy Awards, Maggie confided, "This says that during the Lewinsky scandal millions of American women would have slept with Bill Clinton in an instant. Huh!"And further down the road, Maggie reported, "Hey, this is sort of grotesque. One of the characters has a habit putting his wedding ring in his mouth and sucking on it, but then he accidentally swallows it and has to wait to poop it out before he can get it back."At that, I thought to myself, "Hmm, what an intriguing analogy of marriage."Back at home, after she finished Freedom, I tried to tell Maggie about how much I liked Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier. Maggie looked through me and sighed, "Why don't we ever read the same books?"That's when I figured I should not dismiss a book just because it has a big 'O' on the cover, not any more than I should read it just because it has an 'O'.So I checked out the 562-page doorstop from the library and dug in expecting the great American novel. For the next several evenings, whenever Maggie asked me what I wanted to do after the kids went to bed, I scowled, "Enjoy my Freedom!"Of course, it turns out Freedom is great. Hundreds of years after Oprah and the rest of us are dead and forgotten, Jonathan Franzen's Freedom will be regarded as one of the great novels of our times.Well, it's more of a satire of what a great novel should be. The plot is more cartoonish than believable, and the characters seem as concerned about flip-flops and iPods and their dubious relationships as they are about society or politics or the environment.But that's exactly why it is great. Freedom is about flawed people struggling in an absurd world, and Jonathan Franzen captures that struggle perfectly, just like a "beautifully pure asshole" would.Maggie, what should we read next? I'll check the Oprah picks!

[col2910_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

BLURB..........An international bestseller and the novel of the year, `Freedom' is an epic of contemporary love and marriage.This is the story of the Berglunds, their son Joey, their daughter Jessica and their friend Richard Katz. It is about how we use and abuse our freedom; about the beginning and ending of love; teenage lust; the unexpectedness of adult life; why we compete with our friends; how we betray those closest to us; and why things almost never work out as they `should'. It is a story about the human heart, and what it leads us to do to ourselves and each other.I have avoided reading this book for a year or so, somewhat put off by the size of the volume, some 600-odd pages in length........not as long as some books on the TBR pile........ Robert Littell's The Company awaits further down the line at 900'ish! I just prefer reading shorter, sharper books.The book follows Patty and Walter Berglund, though mainly Patty through high school and college into middle age, traversing friendships, romance, marriage and parenthood and the inter-action of the older Berglunds with their neighbours, children, best (or worst) friend Richard and extended families. Franzen dissects and documents the mundane and everyday occurrences as well as those out of the ordinary. The devil is in the detail and Franzen skilfully and sometimes humorously examines the hurts and pain each one of them feels and imparts on to the others.Franzen could be commentating on anyone of us, or all of us. There's nothing particularly special or worthy about the Berglunds, that sets them apart from the rest of us trying to negotiate a way through life. I suppose that was a big part of the novel's enjoyment for me.To be perfectly honest though, I didn't really warm to Patty Berglund and as a result didn't connect with her pain, her traumas and her life issues, though I didn't find myself despising her at any point either.Best bit of the book, Walter and his speech-giving, a proper laugh out loud comedy moment for me.I haven't read Franzen before, but being the greedy, avaricious accumulator that I am, I have The Corrections and The Twenty-Seventh City on pile TBR. I'll read them some time in the next 20-years, but won't be rushing to acquire his next tome.In my opinion, John Irving does it better, probably with a touch more of the absurd but he's made me care more for his characters particularly in "Garp" and "Owen Meany."Some commentators have described this as the "novel of the year," NO WAY!Good, maybe a 3 plus out of 5, okay 4 then, but I wouldn't even class it as the best book I've read this month.My copy was acquired second-hand from one of the local charity shops in sunny Leighton Buzzard - a bargain at 50p!

[twitham_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Freedom lives up to its hype as the great American novel of 2010. It weaves together the complexities of the generations in a family with politics and environmentalism. It ranges from college life in the 70s, to music, to the mad New York world of money-making, to the beauty of the Minnesotan countryside.

[cathy_huber-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first third of this book was oddly engaging and very readable. I thought it sagged (a lot) in the middle, hence the three star rating. All in all, I found it to be well written, and did finish nicely.

[asawyer_21 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really tried to like this book. Carried the tome all around with me and gave it a valiant effort, it really wants to be the great American novel. After plowing through over half the book, I was forcing myself to keep reading without caring anything about these wretched characters. The writing style is fine, the story moves along at times, but I didn't find myself hoping for, empathizing with, or understanding why we'd care about these people. I don't often put a book down, but I kept imagining all of the books I'd much rather be reading. I give.

[donna828 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Is Freedom the new Novel of the Century? An emphatic NO! ?Decade? Probably not. ?Year? Perhaps, if you enjoy books about miserable people in a world with little hope. I usually don?t mind dark books, but Franzen inflates his story of a modern American family with the repercussions of the ?burdens of liberty? and the ?heavy weight of empire.? These phrases were taken from the flyleaf blurb about the book and give the correct impression that this is a novel with an agenda.This book falls into my ?good but not great? rating category because Franzen does flawed characterizations so well. In the beginning, he expertly describes suburbia at its worst with gossiping neighbors and teen lust abounding. He portrays the effects of generational conflict in a convincing way. To his credit, the value of marriage and the merits of friendship under adverse circumstances are well-presented themes. He is a very good writer who can tell a thought-provoking story.But?unfortunately, Franzen tends to hammer his readers with his views on social and political issues. He takes the usual digs at Republican and Catholics. Thankfully, he skips over global warming to harp on overpopulation. He also goes overboard with the theme of freedom. I enjoy discovering how a title fits into a book; however, there is no such discovery allowed here. From inscriptions on buildings, song lyrics, and pages peppered with ubiquitous references to the word, the reader is bombarded with the ways that freedom can wreck lives and our world. How can this be in a book touted as the ?Great American novel??Enough Already! Interestingly, this is a chapter title in the book. It is my duty as a conservative (small ?c?) reader to give fair warning about pathetic female characters and superficial (sometimes degrading) sex scenes and liberal use of the F-bomb. Oh yes, one more caveat. Do not read this book if you are a cat lover because Franzen is compelled to tell us three times that one million songbirds are killed daily by bloodthirsty cats. I wonder who counts the dead birds?I hope these heartfelt words are not taken as an indictment against the book which many people loved. I?m a firm believer in reading a book and deciding its merits for oneself. The bottom line for me is: the book is overwrought and overrated, yet it is entertaining and gave me food for thought.

[kymmac · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good read, certainly, but I am at a loss as to why it is being called a masterpiece.

[bookweaver · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed reading this book, but I think I agree with many people when I write that it's not the great American novel.

[amanaceerdh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

brilliant book. there is so much going on in this novel that i don't know where to begin. the title is absolutely perfect and has so many meanings. i loved every character in this dysfunctional family. i am really glad franzen gave insight into each characters thoughts and feelings. his writing is flawless!

[jasonpettus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)If it's rare for me to give out a perfect 10 here at CCLaP (only two to three books per year rate as such), then it's unheard of for me to give two perfect 10s within just a week or two of each other; yet that's exactly what I find myself doing today, as I recently followed up Jonathan Evison's remarkable West of Here in my reading list with Jonathan Franzen's equally remarkable Freedom, undoubtedly the most hotly anticipated book of the last six months, and whose release last fall triggered a simultaneous wave of orgasms from ten thousand NPR reporters and Brooklyn cupcake-store owners that could be felt all the way to Portland itself. And that's because, in many people's eyes (including my own -- let me make my biases clear right away), Franzen is a good bet for being one of the handful of contemporary novelists to eventually define our times for future eyes; he has the academic credibility, after all, plus the mainstream success that lets him be a part of the larger popular culture (why, just his saga with Oprah alone will probably merit him at least a footnote in literary history), plus is known for writing massive, complicated, yet touching and bizarrely funny family sagas, the exact kind of thing that makes for easy bestsellers but that academic committees feel okay giving awards to as well.And indeed, as I started making my way through this latest book of his last week, I couldn't help but think how similar it is to Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, now that I've finally read that too; and in fact, Freedom comes curiously close to the hypothetical modern remake of Karenina that I mentioned in my write-up, only with his upper-class, eco-conscious, dysfunctional liberals living in the tony suburbs of Minnesota instead of Wisconsin, and with their occasional urban sojourns being to New York instead of Chicago. Because that's really the most important thing about Franzen to know; that much like Sinclair Lewis in the 1920s, Franzen is mostly known for these scathing indictments against the blandly left middle-class and nouveau-riche, almost blasphemous looks at how the hypocrisies and neuroses of such people directly lead to their own downfall -- and like Lewis in the '20s, Franzen's success is due mostly to the fawning love shown him by the exact bumbling middle-class lefties that he so excoriates in his stories.So that becomes a fascinating question just on its own, of why there are these points in history when the banally evil get great delight out of stories that viciously attack them; and as we can see in Franzen's work when we look closely at it (and Lewis, and John Cheever, and Gustave Flaubert, and all the other writers in history who fit into this pattern), perhaps this is due to certain points in history being complicated ones, where the million small, forgivable sins of a million otherwise decent people is all it takes to create one giant uncontrollable mess, a catastrof-ck that affects us all but that can be blamed on no one specific group, thus necessitating the guilt-fueled self-punishment that has made Franzen such a hit in his time, just like Lewis and Cheever and Flaubert were in their own. I mean, it's hard to deny that this is what Freedom is mostly about, is the various ways that well-meaning dupes end up causing havoc and destruction to everything they touch, through a series of moral compromises that are justified as an inevitable part of the modern world -- from the environmental lawyer who gets in bed with the clear-cut mining industry in order to save an endangered bird, to his neocon son who decides to take on a government contract to procure used truck parts to send to Iraq, just to have the whole thing turn into a third-world nightmare of corruption and violence, to the failed middle-aged musician who has an affair with the lawyer's trainwreck wife, then writes an alt-country album about the experience that becomes the biggest hit of his career.But at the same time, though, it's the uniqueness of Franzen's voice that really set his novels apart, away from other writers who might happen to be juggling the same general issues; because I have to confess, Franzen is one of the only writers working today where I literally cannot guess from even one page to the next where the story is heading, with his plots taking so many random, unexpected spins and jumps that it's simply a delight just to see what happens next. But like all the greatest writers in history, even though his storylines are impeccably weird and complex, they're mere window dressing to the character exploration he does in his books, the main reason to be reading them; because in this menagerie of angry family members and bizarre liberals, we're sure to see at least a bit of ourselves, with Freedom being a fine examination of how exactly American society could've gone so wrong during the Bush years of the early 2000s, even more fascinating for it being told form the perspective of the people who don't think they're the guilty ones, but are perhaps just as much to blame as the actual bible-thumpers, teabaggers and torturing soldiers.And yes, Franzen fans, I know, this is starting to sound an awful lot like his last novel, the equally brilliant The Corrections, which is perhaps the main criticism you can make of this book, that the author simply repeats himself a little too much for some people's tastes; but I instead prefer to look back again at the authors I've already mentioned, to see the relationship between The Corrections and Freedom to be the same as the one between Tolstoy's Karenina and War and Peace, or Lewis' Babbitt, Main Street and Arrowsmith, not repeats or ripoffs but companion pieces set in the same shared universe, part of a more massive "meta-tale" that Franzen is weaving together out of his entire oeuvre, which again can be directly compared to, say, how all the characters in Cheever's hundreds of short stories all seem to be vaguely related to each other. This doesn't really bother me, when similar novels from a single author feel more like interlocking pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle; all I ask is that the quality remain excellent from one title to the next, which is something no one can deny when it comes to Freedom versus The Corrections.It basically boils down to this, that I can't imagine how Franzen could've made this any better than it currently is; and that's a strong motivation for giving a book a 10, when it feels like it literally wouldn't be possible for an editor to go in there and make changes that are legitimately needed. It's one of those books that completely sucked me in while I was reading it, to the point of manytimes no longer even noticing my public surroundings; and this is what the pleasure-reading experience should always be at its absolute best, which is why I consider Freedom among the absolute best that's out there. Needless to say, it comes highly recommended today.Out of 10: 10

[shootingstar2428 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

So happy to be FREE of FREEDOM and move on to something not quite as unnecessarily long, unrealistic, or depressing.

[carpe_librum · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

American author Jonathan Franzen's contemporary novel Freedom was published in 2010, picked up by Oprah Winfrey and added to her selection of book club books and entered many Top 10 Bestseller Lists around the world.My friends and family know that the trendier a book gets the less likely I am to want to pick it up; I just don't like reading what everybody else is reading. But now that all the fuss has died down, and I was able to pick up a copy of Freedom for $4.95 I thought I'd judge for myself whether the claims of 'masterpiece' and 'great American novel' were justified.At 597 pages, Freedom is slightly longer than your average paperback novel and covers a time period of 30 years. It is essentially the story of Patty and Walter Berglund and their marriage together. We spend time with Patty narrating her childhood, courting with Walter, meeting his best friend Richard Katz, having two children and experiencing marriage problems.We also spend time with characters Walter, Richard, and the Berglund son Joey. Much time and effort is devoted to character development in great detail with back story - emotional insights included - and the reader soon has an in depth understanding of the Berglund circle of influence.All of this is played out against two major environmental backdrops through Walter's character; the first being the conservation of the Cerulean Warbler bird through a process of mountaintop removal and the second being overpopulation.Did I like it? I honestly admired the author's ability to create such a depth of character in a fashion not seen a lot in contemporary fiction. (Perhaps this is why it is referred to as 'the great American novel'). But did I care? No, not really. These were ordinary people doing ordinary things and broadly speaking this story could be a book about love; or a love triangle.I also struggled with the long paragraphs and especially the long chapters. Some chapters were 50 - 70 pages in length, which meant reading for two nights before reaching the end of a chapter, argh!I did feel a little 'tricked' reading this novel, as if the author had used the love story in which to park his real environmental agenda and I couldn't help getting my back up about this. They just didn't fit together. I also resented the length of the book and was glad when it was over. So, my rating will reflect this: three stars in admiration of the effort, minus one star for the resentment and lack of care factor.

[jaylehnertz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reading Franzen’s Freedom in December of 2010, after months of reviews and reader-reactions, leaves little to be said that has not already hit the airwaves. [Ron Charles’ commentary (video review), as one reader has noted previously, is not to be missed.] With the sides now clearly drawn, I come down on the side of the Franzenites who see the novel as a “compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times” (Kaktani, New York Times, 8-15-10). Freedom is certainly on my list of the top ten novels of the year.

[lynleys-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I hear it took Franzen 10 years to write this brick and I feared it'd take me another 10 to read it. In reality, it consumed 3 weeks, and I may not have ploughed through had it not been a book club book, with a deadline of tomorrow.

The problem with novels in which we follow multiple characters is simply that we're likely to enjoy reading about some more than others. I found Patty's parts interesting, despite that weird talking about herself in the third person thing that she did. (I've read some of Jonathan Franzen's advice to authors, and one of his nuggets of advice is to write in third person unless a strong first person voice presents itself. There are limits, Jon. Limits.)

Strangely, while I empathasised with Walter Berglund (as I was surely meant to), I found his story the least interesting.

Joey was a little shit if ever I saw one, and although we were *told* that he came good, we aren't sufficiently shown it. For some strange reason we never hear much about Walter and Patty's daughter, Jessica. Perhaps good people just aren't that interesting.

The ending was pure cheese. Manipulative, on Patty's part, and reminiscent of a teenager's unimaginative fantasy scene -- needing to warm someone up so that they don't die of hypothermia and then falling heavily in love after looking into each other's eyes. This was disappointing because until that point I'd thought the author artful in his portrayal of heavily emotional scenes, including arguments and sex scenes.

Franzen likes his long-winded sentences, and first sentences (of the book, and of each section) were particularly convoluted. I think he's good at writing dialogue though.

Due to the slightly unusual structure of the book (is this what makes it 'literary'?) I was alternately interested and bored stiff all the way through. This is why I struggled through it in the end, knowing on Monday that if I didn't read 50 pages a day then I wouldn't get the darn thing finished in time to discuss it tomorrow night.

I'm sure that's not the mark of an enjoyable book, but I suppose it was an achievement.

Unusually for me, I'm going to steer clear of commenting on Jonathan Franzen's 'woman problem' because I really can't make up my mind on that from reading just one book. And I've no intention of reading another.

[moonswanni · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The author is a good writer and really knows how to propel the story forward. I really enjoyed the book in a strange way, but had a few issues. I didn't find the plot extremely interesting and thought the book could have been shorter. The characters also came off as caricatures that didn't have any depth. Although I agree with some of the authors viewpoints on politics and the environment, I thought these sections of the book were unnecessary long and whiny. Doesn’t live up to the hype, but it was worth reading.

[claudia.anderson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

although well written, none of the characters in this book were even likeable; I found myself looking forward to the book ending

[bensdad00 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An epic look at the twisted life of a Midwestern family that for many people hits far to close to home for comfort.

[meredk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Franzen's writing is angry, funny, and insightful. Reading his books is like getting on a roller-coaster. Really enjoyed this one!

[mynovelthoughts · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Freedom is an excellent novel that touches on many contemporary events and issues including the environment, 9/11, the war in Iraq. Another great story about contemporary American life by the author of The Corrections.

[bibleblaster · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was something of a surprise to me, becoming much more compassionate toward the characters than I would have expected. Freedom, its many twisted permutations, and its pitfalls are the clear themes that drive the book, and it reaches imperfectly toward that "capturing an era" great-american-novel status, but Franzen never forgets that each house on the block has its own stories...stories worth telling...stories worth hearing. Not the most likable characters; runs on the razor-edge of cliche on the one side and genuine insight on the other; I wanted to not like it but the stars don't lie...I really liked it.

[evaberry · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Superbly written, with very astute insights into the characters' interior lives and into moden life in general. Although at the beginning I wondered sightly why we should care about these people, I missed them when the book ended. I did feel it flagged slightly towards the middle, as some of the events became a bit unbelievable, clearly manipulated in order to get the message across. However, this was necessary in order for Franzen to explore his theories on freedom at all levels (individual - couple - family - community - nation - world - environment).

[shawislandlibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm late arriving at Franzen's work. This is the first I've read, and "The Corrections" obviously beckons (it was checked out in my library at the time I decided to explore his work). "Freedom" is a somewhat elaborately constructed work, with two "autobiographical" sections, written in the third person by one of the novel's characters. The first of these sections is introduced after a brief introductory chapter, and then it reappears later in the novel as it is presented, manuscript form, to one of the other characters in the novel: "here is what was going on, for me, all these years..." The fatal results of this revelation leads, many years later, to a second, briefer autobiographical update. The novel's title appears to be explained, in one of the subsequent non-autobiographical sections, by one of the characters (the recipient of the autobiography, not the author) as: "The reason the system can't be overthrown in this country... is all about freedom. The reason the free market in Europe is tempered by socialism is that they're not so hung up on personal liberties there." The downside to freedom being defined by a right wing manipulated sense of personal liberties is explored with excruciating detail, and hugely complicated results. The tidal pull of the characters in Franzen's writing keeps it interesting: just when you think they've alienated you completely, they do something extraordinary to pull you back into their human orbit. And there is, somehow, a happy ending.

[neilsloth · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

"Very worthy" book but with utterly unlikeable characters. I gave up on it after only the first couple of chapters. Kathy "read" it all as an audiobook and I heard more of it after I had given it up. Story is of dysfunctional people but the backdrop is the environmental problems of modern day USA. A strong theme is the need to revive the ZPG (Zero Population Growth) movement.

[ecb06c · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really loved this book, mostly for the characters. They were rich and full and I missed interacting with them when the book was finished. Such an intricate story, very well done.

[mpho3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Language is a slippery, ever-changing thing. Because I'm old enough that shaking my head while uttering "kids these days" is my daily ritual, I often don't care for the slang of newer generations. That is until I myself find use for it, and I have done so now: "Say less," Mr. Franzen. Say less.Though I am naturally snarky, I blame the above paragraph on the hangover Freedom produced. While I still have little in the way of insightful commentary to add to the many reviews and opinions noted by my fellow readers, I do think I have something unique to share. I can't remember if it began with Patty or Walter, but much before the halfway mark of the book, I began "hearing" and reading Patty's voice as that of Laura Linney and Walter's as Jason Bateman's. Of course, the two actors play a married couple on Ozark, but I didn't put that together at first. Initially, it hindered my reading because I wondered if I was channeling the actors or the other characters they play, Wendy and Marty, respectively. Eventually I leaned into it because not only did these "voices" seem beyond my control, but they lent some momentum to my reading; I was able to sit with the book for longer periods of time and therefore get more pages behind me, which was a challenge at times. It didn't stop there. Unsolicited by my conscious mind, I began reading Richard in the voice of Tim Gutterson, a character on Justified played by Jacob Pitts. Here it was clear that it was the character, not the actor who was living in my head. Lastly, Joey's part was filled by Tanner Buchanan's portrayal of Robby on Cobra Kai. None of Freedom's other characters were subsumed in my mind in this way, nor is it a typical experience for me. I have no idea of what to attribute it nor of what it means. Did I like the book? Sometimes. I didn't hate it, but I hated how it would oscillate between being interesting and readable for pages at a time and then morph into a slog. This is why I started out with, say less. I wish an editor had insisted Franzen remove some of the sexual grotesquerie between Joey and himself or Joey and Carol and about 50% of the Cerulean Mountain Trust screed. If Franzen gets paid by the word, Jessica was given short shrift. Her bit might have taken up at least as much space as Patty's friend Eliza.I am on the fence about whether or not I will ever undertake The Corrections, but if so, it won't be any time soon. I've had quite my fill for now.

[amerynth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I mostly enjoyed Jonathan Franzen's novel "Freedom," which plows along with the lives and loves of a fairly dysfunctional family. The characters are interesting and deeply flawed people, which helps propel the story along. I felt it wasn't all that different from "The Corrections" though.... Franzen definitely has a very recognizable style of storytelling.

[stephkaye-923485 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read my last Franzen book, The Corrections, ten years ago. I remember very little about it except that I liked it. And I really like Freedom. It's chock-full of real characters I care about, whom I feel I know in some way, and yet who are complex enough that they can still act in ways that are surprising. I like Julia Glass for the same reason, for creating characters whose lives intersect in such real and three-dimensional ways that you just keep turning pages to find what they'll do next.

[eglinton_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a weighty book with a lot of things going on, but not all the themes are easy to categorise: is this a Truffaultesque love triangle, or Chekhovian contamination by estate and wealth? Sibling and generational rivalry, or parallels? Are the lead characters undone by lust, by coolness, or just by disdain for the uncool and unenlightened? The treatment can be wearing at times, perhaps due to the author’s own unflinching disdain: his detachment and lack of affection for his characters distances the reader too. And there’s some Walden-style misanthropy in the rejection of freedom's excesses. Nonetheless, the work is always convincingly and interestingly laid out, with stacked up details and layering and cross-referencing. All is tied to recent history's own convulsions - Iraq , 9/11, the rise and demise of liberal prosperity. To the brooding, open-wound tone, drama is injected occasionally by brutal acts of conclusive violence, or by windfalls and legacies like a Victorian novel denouement.

[captainsunbeam · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It speaks to Franzen's ability that I feel poisoned by the misery of these characters. Plenty of other stories present you with awful people leading awful lives, but this is the first time I've actually been brought so low by fiction.