Freedom: A Novel Paperback – September 27, 2011

Like many of you, perhaps, I was a bit turned off by all the advance hype surrounding this book. Many have called it a masterpiece, even Book of the Century.I wouldn't go that far--but it is certainly an excellent novel which succeeds on several levels. It is literary, yet it is blockbuster stuff in its commercial connotations, with lots of sex and topical concerns. A novel for our times, yet one which resonates with the classics.The first section is a very comfortable read. For a time, it seemed almost a parody or tribute to Garrison Keillor's monologues about Lake Woebegone, such as collected in his volume, LIBERTY. It opens in Minnesota too, but instead of a rural neighborhood, this is the suburbs, and the narrative seemingly turns onto the set of Wisteria Lane in DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.Still, the first section, entitled "Good Neighbors," is an entertaining satire, nicely paced and well sprinkled with insights about archetypical types. I especially enjoyed the conspiratorial tone.The next section is an autobiography of one of the main characters written in the third person with editorial asides. This sets the out the main characters and the plot for the novel, though the novel has already been succinctly foreshadowed in the lone epigraph:Go, togetherYou precious winners all. I, an old turtle,Will wing me to some withered bough, and thereMy mate, that's never to be found again,Lament till I am lost. --Shakespeare, THE WINTER'S TALEAs I say, much of the novel is about winners and losers, freedom vs. responsibility. Franzen sets up a trinity of main characters, Patti and her husband Walter as suburban Adam and Eve, and Adam's friend, Richard, as the snake in the Garden.This trinity consists of Walter (mind/spirit dominated), Richard (flesh dominated), and wishy-washy Patti, who wants to have both and wavers between the two.About midway through the book, Lilitha is introduced. Make no mistake, she is an incarnation of Lilith from the Garden of Eden Myth, a mirror to Richard, with a Lilith agenda against population growth, babies--and childbirth in principle.Franzen uses literary and musical references to support his arguments (and much of the novel seems argued). Regarding winners and losers, he mentions Bob Dylan's showing up Donovan in the documentary, "Don't Look Back." He shows Richard reading his favorite new novelist, Thomas Bernhard, but doesn't tell us which book he is reading.Of course, if you've read Thomas Bernhard's THE LOSER, you would know which book it was, for that is the world in which Richard would find himself at home.And Patti reads WAR AND PEACE, skimming over the military parts to get to Tolstoy's soap-opera sections, which resonate well with this novel. The text mentions WAR AND PEACE several times as if justify its own use of melodrama--see, the classics used soap too.Other classical references are mentioned: Aristotle and the different kinds of causes: Material, efficient, formal, and final. Walter sees the final cause of most of the world's problems as unlimited population growth, which aligns him with Lilith.Richard is a counter-culture rock musician who finally becomes successful after souring on the business, as can be seen in an interview after a Grammy nomination. Note the reference to Rousseau:"Q: What do you think of the MP3 revolution?A: Ah, revolution, wow. It's great to hear the word "revolution" again. It's great that a song now costs exactly the same as a pack of gum and lasts exactly the same amount of time before it loses its flavor and you have to spend another buck.That era which finally ended but yesterday, whenever--you know, that era when we pretended rock was the scourge of conformity and consumerism, instead of its anointed handmaid--that era was really irritating to me. I think it's good for the honesty of rock and roll and good for the country in general that we can finally see Bob Dylan and Iggy Pop for what they really were: as manufacturers of winter-green Chiclets.Q: So you're saying rock has lost its subversive edge?A: I'm saying it never had any subversive edge. It was always wintergreen Chiclets, we just enjoyed pretending otherwise.Q: What about when Dylan went electric?A: If you're going to talk about ancient history, let's go back to the French revolution. Remember when, I forget his name, but that rocker who wrote "Marseillaise, Jean Jacques Whoever--remember when his song started getting all that airplay in 1792, and suddenly the peasantry rose up and overthrew the aristocracy? There was a song that changed the world.Attitude was what the peasants were missing. They already had everything else--humiliating servitude, grinding poverty, unpayable debts, horrific working conditions. But without a song, man, it added up to nothing. The sansculotte style was what really changed the world....We in the Chiclet manufacturing business are not about social justice, we're not about accurate or objectively verifiable information, we're not about meaningful labor, we're not about a coherent set of national ideals, we're not about wisdom. . ."After finishing the book, you'll have to ask yourself, is this book brilliant and profound or is it just another box of wintergreen Chiclets?Seems to me, the correct answer is: both.

Yes, I realize that this book was over-hyped, and is bound to leave some Readers disappointed. It is, however, for the most part an excellent read, very satisfying, more ambitious than "The Corrections" and tighter. It is consistently both entertaining and thought-provoking. Many, many parts of the book are finely observed & resonated personally with me, and I was in a rush to finish it. Definitely a major work of fiction by one of our finest authors. Highly recommended.The action is centered on an American family, Patty, her husband Walt, Walt's best friend Richard, Patty and Walt's son Joey, and their inevitable entanglements. As the title suggests, Franzen has some larger themes in mind as well, sexual freedom, artistic freedom, the freedom of the marketplace to dictate societal mores. He doesn't hammer away at any of these -- well, sex is a big area of concern to Patty who has never been very turned on by Walt -- it's not "The Brothers Karamazov," but the burden (and luxury) of these freedoms all but break the backs of the main characters. It is not just a simple family saga, tackling these larger themes in a thoroughly engaging and entertaining way.What I would like to add that other reviewers neglected, especially to some who failed to enjoy the book as much as I did, that I think there is something going on here with "War and Peace," which is mentioned at key points several times in the story. What I think distinguishes War and Peace (Modern Library Classics) from the Great American Novels is that the Russian characters in Tolstoy's epic experience fundamental, transformative changes in personality and outlook. This transformation occurs in Tolstoy under the influence of the extraordinary circumstances in which his characters find themselves. This sort of fundamental & personal transformation is largely absent from American literature, where, instead, the characters are often either redeemed in some fashion (Redemption is really our major theme) or tend to grow and ripen around some set of core of values, set in motion in the Land of Opportunity & under the influence of American social fluidity. I think what Patty and Walt endure is intended to be transformational in the way Pierre & Natasha are changed by the extraordinary series events they live through during the war with Napoleon, and we are to take that transformation of Walt and Patty in "Freedom" at face value, a la Tolstoy. (There is even a war going on, the one in Iraq, but these are events occurring in the background, which is fitting since, with one notable exeption, no one was wreaking destruction hereabouts on native territory during that unfortunate episode in our history.) The way the narrative structure in "Freedom" bounces back and forth among the major characters also echoes Tolstoy's technique in "War and Peace." It is subtle, but I have the sense that Tolstoy is an important influence here.Transformation is quite an unusual literary statement from an American novelist, In contrast, Richard is ultimately redeemed from his nihilism in a much more conventional fashion - by the way, he is far and away the sharpest drawn character in book, the prose positively crackles whenever we are inside his head. And Patty's college-age son Joey similarly manages to survive his encounter with the contemporary culture of greed in the usual bildungsroman narrative arc. These are treated as minor episodes, compared to the cataclysmic changes that Patty and Walt undergo. And I am not sure Franzen is completely successful, either, but that flaw may be ours as readers, though, just as the coincidences that are used to stitch together the plots of great 19th century novels look artificial to modern eyes. Nevertheless, here is a book that weaves together some thoughtful and relevant ideas the author has about the human condition and the way we have "chosen" to live today.America as the "Land of Opportunity" is still featured in the works of recent arrivals to our shores (e.g., "The Namesake"), but for those of us who are several generations into the American experience, the frontier has long since been explored and the promise of "The Great Society" looks increasingly hollow againtst a self-indulgent age of consumerism that is our legacy to our children of affluence. The larger point I believe Franzen is making here is that here at the End of History and up against the Limits of Growth, there is an abundance of freedom, yet many of the choices we have the luxury of exercising lead away from fulfillment (both personal and societal) to personal tragedy, nihilism, or worse.

It has all the nice characteristics of Franzen's novel, and the complexity of the plot and the bitter sarcasm reminded me of "The Corrections": If you liked "The Corrections" you should read this one as well.

Jonathan Franzen is a master juggler with words, facts, imaginations and fantasies. And if you want to improve your English: read Franzen and have a dictionary ready

Personajes bien desarrollados, dialogos consecuentes con la personalidad de cada uno, una historia que engancha...un libro con mayusculas.Lo recomiendo encarecidamente

I loved 'War and Peace' and I gotta say, I really liked 'Freedom.' I couldn't finish Franzen's previous novel, 'Corrections' but the story of a family coping with one of the most tumultuous times in the history of mankind, in the country that would fall from its status as empire has got to be interesting. The fact that it's a story about minor characters makes it even better. There are no nobles in this story, no heads of states or corporations, just ordinary folk attempting to cope. When I started the book, I thought I'd last fifty pages at most. Instead, I was picking it up every spare minute I could find. Patty Berglund is the mom, Walter is the father, Joey, the son and Jennifer, the daughter. Walter and Patty both have parents and siblings and both share Richard, a mutual friend. Patty and Walter grow up during the sixties and early seventies, have children, find jobs in the eighties, become disillusioned in the nineties and find new jobs in the new millennium. Their country goes from a Cold War participant to omniscient over all nations to pathetic has-been and so these times are reflected the lives of the Berglunds. At the time of their birth, the fabric of American society is held together by cloth that keeps its shape by a frame that pulls from opposite directions. And suddenly, with the end of the Cold War, one side is broken and the cloth is left to flap limp, exposed to breezes from any direction whereby each thread must decide how it's going to fit, whether to remain part of the cloth or let go and be taken in whatever direction the breeze might be blowing. So, we see with the family. The grandparents don't question their place in the scheme of American life and neither do the children. It's the parents, Walter and Patty who are lost not knowing whether to hold on or let go. This is a fantastic book. Only time will determine its eligibility as a classic.

Du grand Johnathan Franzen, si vous avez aimé Les Corrections, vous aimerez Freedom. L'histoire en quelques mots :Patty Berglund, mariée, deux enfants, revient sur sa vie, ses bons moments, ses erreurs, ses passages à vides. entremélée entre sonr écit, on trouve le point de vue de chaque personnage sur cette même vie (son mari, sa fille et son fils).C'est très bien écrit (les plus de 700 pages passent très rapidement), très juste et touchant. Je le recommande chaudement.