crabbygirl reviewed The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Review of 'The Corrections' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I've never read such fully-fleshed deeply recognisable characters in my life! the mom was MY mom - averting her eyes if forced to confront something distasteful about her adult children (then feigning ignorance if/when the aversion was witnessed), her obsession with a Christmas that will never live up to the fantasy in her head, her way of commenting aloud rather than straight out asking for help or asking for help but sandwiching it inside over the top compliments. But she also revealed character flaws in ME: long held grudges, passive aggressively favouring family members are acquiesce to her will, her utter, utter aversion to being judged and shamed.
the dad was a study of stoic masculinity: at first I mistook his early retirement as pride and a refusal to look weak in the face of an oncoming, unavoidable health shift (and when I discovered I was wrong, it was only …
I've never read such fully-fleshed deeply recognisable characters in my life! the mom was MY mom - averting her eyes if forced to confront something distasteful about her adult children (then feigning ignorance if/when the aversion was witnessed), her obsession with a Christmas that will never live up to the fantasy in her head, her way of commenting aloud rather than straight out asking for help or asking for help but sandwiching it inside over the top compliments. But she also revealed character flaws in ME: long held grudges, passive aggressively favouring family members are acquiesce to her will, her utter, utter aversion to being judged and shamed.
the dad was a study of stoic masculinity: at first I mistook his early retirement as pride and a refusal to look weak in the face of an oncoming, unavoidable health shift (and when I discovered I was wrong, it was only about the focus, and not the reasons). In him I could recognise my husband's future; of being able to disassemble and fix objects your whole life long (the comfort of being provider and compass) and then new technologies come around and make their guts opaque and the resulting uselessness that settles around becoming hostage to consumerism - the only way out of a broken object is to spend...
the oldest son is in a marriage/death match with a woman who equally exasperates and invigorates him. is she really the terrible woman who makes him chose between his family of origin and her, who eavesdrops on his phone calls to his mother, who encourages their boys to slyly make fun of a formerly loved family tradition? or is this a version of her in his mind? the tension between that wife and the one who drives him out of his mind with desire explains the viability of any marriage that is still standing today!
About midway thru the book the reader is immersed in a dementia delusion happening in the father's head, and so it seems natural to bookend that with a fantastical story involving the mother - but not only is story real, the parents themselves are at the heart of an outlandish plot point when the father falls from the deck's ship (and survives)... Just when you think you've pinned down the style and substance of this character study, there is so much more!
Franzen writes satirically about capitalism and the markets, and his 'corrections' title references many possible permutations: to a manuscript, to a parental philosophy, to the market. His section about privatising the country of Lithuania was probably over my head but it's clear he can balance many themes while supposedly centering on this American family. I want to read everything he's ever done.
