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Freedom A Novel Jonathan Franzen Books

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Freedom A Novel Jonathan Franzen Books

"Mistakes were made" is the title of a lengthy autobiographical insert in Jonathan Franzen's even lengthier 2010 novel, "Freedom". Patty Berglund, one of the book's primary characters, writes "Mistakes were made" early in the book at the suggestion of her therapist. The story of her life and what she sees as the mistakes of others and of herself,reverberates greatly through this novel. The nature of mistakes and what are viewed as the choices an individual makes in life are explored in Franzen's novel as suggested by its title. The novel might be read to suggest that people castigate themselves and others, and their country as well, for choices, both their own and those of others, that in hindsight they fear are mistaken. "Freedom" is used to suggest a misuse of choice, which a person allegedly makes freely. There are of course many views of the nature of "freedom" including the view that freedom involves self-acceptance, a recognition of causality and necessity, and a determination to make the best of it. Perhaps this would be a Spinozistic or Nietzschean view of freedom as opposed to a moralizing view sometimes but not always derived from religious sources. (The moralizing in this book does not seem religiously derived in any obvious way.) The American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr's famous serenity prayer captures the difficulty in determining which of one's actions are changeable and "free" : "God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." In any event, Franzen's novel purportedly explores the nature of freedom but it does so with such clumsiness, bluster, and vitriol that it is difficult to find the thread. The critical, shrill stance of the book does not encourage reflection. Whatever the theme of a book, it must encourage its readers to continue with the work and to think. This book doesn't do so. I didn't like it.

"Freedom" tells the story of Patty, (with the teasing maiden name of Emerson) and Walter Bergulund. Patty's early life is recounted in her autobiography while Franzen tells of Walter's early life throughout the book. The two meet in college in Minnesota. Patty is sexually attracted to a rock musician, Richard Katz, but winds up marrying the solid law student Walter, Richard's best friend. The couple become urban pioneers in St. Paul and have two children. They are not happy. Walter is a lawyer with strongly liberal and environmentalist leanings. Patty becomes a stay at home mom, even though Walter is a staunch feminist.

The story involves a sexual triangle, as Patty spends much time sorting through her feelings for Walter and Richard. The unhappy couple's children, Joey and Jessica, each must find their own way in the world. The book becomes heavily involved with a host of political issues. These include feminism, environmentalism, overpopulation, the Iraq War, the financial meltdown, the distribution of wealth, and more. With its discussion of many of the controversies in a polarized America, issues regarding the civil rights of African Americans receive little or no attention. (African Americans are mentioned as moving out and eventually back to what becomes a middle-class neighborhood in St. Paul.) The overall tone of "Freedom" is critical of American conservatism, but no one in American life is portrayed with much sympathy. The novel might be seen as the portrait of a dysfunctional family, but the political material is too interwoven to be considered as somehow separate from the theme of the book.

This book is long and tedious with flashes of insight. With some sharp passages and moments, the work is overwritten and ranting. It often raves on for paragraphs where a word, or perhaps omission altogether, will do. For the most part Franzen is harsh and judgmental with his characters as the characters are harsh and judgmental with themselves and others. While the book goes to great lengths to develop its many characters, it too-often does so through long, windy sections in which the author tells the contents of their minds and their pasts. With all the psychologizing about the characters, primary and secondary, they all seem cold and detached. In a long book, written in emotional over-drive, I found myself largely disengaged. With an often heavy-handed mockery, "Freedom" is patronizing in its portrayal of American life. The larger share of the authors' critical attitude is directed against conservatives even though in one of the better moments of the book he warns against this particular vice of intellectual and moral snobbery. The book displays a curious and unappealing mix of treatment of a family and individuals, large-scale political ranting, philosophical ideas, and toilet humor and language.

In 2009, I read Franzen's award-winning novel "The Corrections" and reviewed it here on Amazon. My view of "Freedom" is similar to what I wrote about "The Corrections"; but I had much less patience with and sympathy for the more recent novel. Here is part of what I wrote about "The Corrections" that I think apples to this book as well.

"Franzen's book has good moments and moments I thought were dreadful. His characters ...... are brought to life in all their troubles. The social criticism -- the discussion of the claimed materialism, selfishness, lack of values, technological obsessions, lack of sexuality and intimacy of the current United States, is unmercifully pounded home again and again. There is a tone of alienation, superiority, shrillness and judgment in this book which I found off-putting. One looks for both compassion and understanding. There is little of this until, perhaps, the end of the tale. The book is far too long for what it says and in many places overwritten."

I found myself resisting this book at nearly every page and wanting it to end. In this case, the whole may be more than the sum of its parts, but I remained heavily dissatisfied and dubious about the value of my perseverance. Contrary to the tenor of "Freedom", much good may be said about the intellectual and moral vibrancy of Americans and their culture from the fact that so many people read and thought about this book and took it seriously. "Freedom" became a best seller and was featured on Oprah Winfrey's show. Many readers have reviewed it here on Amazon. Many professional critics were lavish in their praise of "Freedom" but overall the reader reviews of the book are less favorable, with many making literate, thoughtful critical observations. Something may be said for the value of thinking past this book -- for readers to find a way to see themselves, their fellows, and their country differently from the ways they are portrayed here and to love them even though they may not share the ideals or politics suggested in this novel. The United States should be loved and understood as a whole before attempting to criticize individuals. I relish my freedom to make up my own mind, based upon my own reading and experience, to not rely blindly on critical accolades, and to decide that this novel is not for me.

Robin Friedman


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Freedom A Novel Jonathan Franzen Books Reviews

This reader gets the impression Franzen could have written any other book he wanted—he has that much talent—or he could have written this book in any of several other ways. And just as successfully if not more so. Still, warts and all, I recommend this novel even though Franzen obviously has the power to have crafted it far better.

Okay, Franzen does deal with freedom as a theme here and there, but the book should probably have been titled Dysfunction, and man, is it full of that in spades.

Structurally, this novel packs more subplots and minor characters into its pages than a Dickens tome. Fortunately, only a few of these become tedious, though some appear irrelevant, at least at the level of detail he presents. He also treats us to some truly idiosyncratic approaches to punctuation and capitalization--especially a liberal use of colons and parenthetical details set off in commas.

And talk about hooks and leaving the reader hanging? Franzen constantly jumps around in time, dropping one set of characters in favor of another, at least for the time being. See, he does return through flashbacks to pick up where he left off to fill us in. “Oh, so that’s what happened,” we say. And in some cases, the flashbacks jump through multiple generations. Yikes.

Further, he relishes triangles, the type that focus on love, sex, lust, and other human preoccupations that can become quite unhappy. He also gives us his takes on place, such as the upper Midwest, New York and its environs, and Washington DC and vicinity—hey, he spends much time in West Virginia and even South America. The characters change, grow, fade, and are re-reviewed and seen in new lights by their fellow characters from time to time as the plot progresses.
What can I say? I really enjoyed this book. I liked the way Franzen began with a tapestry, a lifescape for his characters, I liked the way he meticulously unraveled this tapestry before our reading eyes, and continued to unravel it such that it seemed impossible for the characters, the events, the plot, and the setting to be unraveled any further, and then they are unraveled further, and then the author throws the threads on the ground, tramples on them, and then brings them up again, and carefully, thread by thread, re-weaves the tapestry until it is bigger and grander than it was before. The whole effect is utterly cathartic. I laughed at so many sections, and re-read certain sections that I felt were incredibly odd but delightful. I identified with the characters, mostly with their constant pools of embarrassment, guilt and shame that come with being a human--especially the kind who continues to make terrible mistakes (shame and guilt are exactly those emotions which Franzen enjoys drawing mercilessly, as if to show that once out, it’s no big deal). It’s a satire, but in a subtle way—so yes, laugh, especially when Walter loses himself into all CAPS and Patty sleepwalks against her will. And read with a hearty attitude—it’s no breezy stroll in the park. More like a hike along the ocean in a cold but invigorating gale that blows into your face no matter which way you turn, but which occasionally breaks to allow you fleeting glimpses of magnificent sun-streaked cliffs, reminding you how deep and wide the experience and scope of life can be.
"Mistakes were made" is the title of a lengthy autobiographical insert in Jonathan Franzen's even lengthier 2010 novel, "Freedom". Patty Berglund, one of the book's primary characters, writes "Mistakes were made" early in the book at the suggestion of her therapist. The story of her life and what she sees as the mistakes of others and of herself,reverberates greatly through this novel. The nature of mistakes and what are viewed as the choices an individual makes in life are explored in Franzen's novel as suggested by its title. The novel might be read to suggest that people castigate themselves and others, and their country as well, for choices, both their own and those of others, that in hindsight they fear are mistaken. "Freedom" is used to suggest a misuse of choice, which a person allegedly makes freely. There are of course many views of the nature of "freedom" including the view that freedom involves self-acceptance, a recognition of causality and necessity, and a determination to make the best of it. Perhaps this would be a Spinozistic or Nietzschean view of freedom as opposed to a moralizing view sometimes but not always derived from religious sources. (The moralizing in this book does not seem religiously derived in any obvious way.) The American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr's famous serenity prayer captures the difficulty in determining which of one's actions are changeable and "free" "God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." In any event, Franzen's novel purportedly explores the nature of freedom but it does so with such clumsiness, bluster, and vitriol that it is difficult to find the thread. The critical, shrill stance of the book does not encourage reflection. Whatever the theme of a book, it must encourage its readers to continue with the work and to think. This book doesn't do so. I didn't like it.

"Freedom" tells the story of Patty, (with the teasing maiden name of Emerson) and Walter Bergulund. Patty's early life is recounted in her autobiography while Franzen tells of Walter's early life throughout the book. The two meet in college in Minnesota. Patty is sexually attracted to a rock musician, Richard Katz, but winds up marrying the solid law student Walter, Richard's best friend. The couple become urban pioneers in St. Paul and have two children. They are not happy. Walter is a lawyer with strongly liberal and environmentalist leanings. Patty becomes a stay at home mom, even though Walter is a staunch feminist.

The story involves a sexual triangle, as Patty spends much time sorting through her feelings for Walter and Richard. The unhappy couple's children, Joey and Jessica, each must find their own way in the world. The book becomes heavily involved with a host of political issues. These include feminism, environmentalism, overpopulation, the Iraq War, the financial meltdown, the distribution of wealth, and more. With its discussion of many of the controversies in a polarized America, issues regarding the civil rights of African Americans receive little or no attention. (African Americans are mentioned as moving out and eventually back to what becomes a middle-class neighborhood in St. Paul.) The overall tone of "Freedom" is critical of American conservatism, but no one in American life is portrayed with much sympathy. The novel might be seen as the portrait of a dysfunctional family, but the political material is too interwoven to be considered as somehow separate from the theme of the book.

This book is long and tedious with flashes of insight. With some sharp passages and moments, the work is overwritten and ranting. It often raves on for paragraphs where a word, or perhaps omission altogether, will do. For the most part Franzen is harsh and judgmental with his characters as the characters are harsh and judgmental with themselves and others. While the book goes to great lengths to develop its many characters, it too-often does so through long, windy sections in which the author tells the contents of their minds and their pasts. With all the psychologizing about the characters, primary and secondary, they all seem cold and detached. In a long book, written in emotional over-drive, I found myself largely disengaged. With an often heavy-handed mockery, "Freedom" is patronizing in its portrayal of American life. The larger share of the authors' critical attitude is directed against conservatives even though in one of the better moments of the book he warns against this particular vice of intellectual and moral snobbery. The book displays a curious and unappealing mix of treatment of a family and individuals, large-scale political ranting, philosophical ideas, and toilet humor and language.

In 2009, I read Franzen's award-winning novel "The Corrections" and reviewed it here on . My view of "Freedom" is similar to what I wrote about "The Corrections"; but I had much less patience with and sympathy for the more recent novel. Here is part of what I wrote about "The Corrections" that I think apples to this book as well.

"Franzen's book has good moments and moments I thought were dreadful. His characters ...... are brought to life in all their troubles. The social criticism -- the discussion of the claimed materialism, selfishness, lack of values, technological obsessions, lack of sexuality and intimacy of the current United States, is unmercifully pounded home again and again. There is a tone of alienation, superiority, shrillness and judgment in this book which I found off-putting. One looks for both compassion and understanding. There is little of this until, perhaps, the end of the tale. The book is far too long for what it says and in many places overwritten."

I found myself resisting this book at nearly every page and wanting it to end. In this case, the whole may be more than the sum of its parts, but I remained heavily dissatisfied and dubious about the value of my perseverance. Contrary to the tenor of "Freedom", much good may be said about the intellectual and moral vibrancy of Americans and their culture from the fact that so many people read and thought about this book and took it seriously. "Freedom" became a best seller and was featured on Oprah Winfrey's show. Many readers have reviewed it here on . Many professional critics were lavish in their praise of "Freedom" but overall the reader reviews of the book are less favorable, with many making literate, thoughtful critical observations. Something may be said for the value of thinking past this book -- for readers to find a way to see themselves, their fellows, and their country differently from the ways they are portrayed here and to love them even though they may not share the ideals or politics suggested in this novel. The United States should be loved and understood as a whole before attempting to criticize individuals. I relish my freedom to make up my own mind, based upon my own reading and experience, to not rely blindly on critical accolades, and to decide that this novel is not for me.

Robin Friedman