Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Dear Mr. Franzen, you are one ANGRY mo-fo. Overpopulation, globalization, environmental terrorists, actual terrorists, hipsters, Republicans and Democrats are all equally loathed in this 500 page tome. Having not read The Corrections despite Hammill’s praise in this very blog, I had no idea what to expect; all I knew was that the Publishing Establishment salivate over this man. He was on the cover of Time magazine with the heading of ‘Great American Novelist’ for Chrissakes – as far as I can tell, he’s written two books of note. Not twenty. TWO. Americans are well lazy.

However.

This is brilliant. Engrossing, unexpected, unflinching. We all know people like this and hope that we don’t turn out like them. Characters jump around the chapters, get all sweaty and dirty, are benched by Franzen and then called up again when you thought they’d been sidelined from the game permanently. Shaky marriages and ungrateful children run alongside bigger plotlines of environmentalism and corruption, and the only time it got slightly bogged down where the more in-depth explanations of political lobbying which was lost on this little black duck (hey, so my uni major was Lit and not Politics. So sue me). I think one day, I managed to work an eight hour day and still read 250 pages. I was hooked.

I advise anyone reading this to shell out for this over your Christmas break and spend a couple of solid days reading. Enjoy.