Review: "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen

It has been almost exactly 10 years since I first read Jonathan Franzen’s game-changing novel The Corrections and after reading it a second time, it was like a whole new experience, as clichéd as that sounds. I don’t think it is the kind of novel a 21 year old can fully understand. There is a lot to enjoy as we watch the Lambert family succumb to their misfortunes over the course of 566 pages, but reading it at 31 it feels painfully real for anyone who struggles with this idea of family (so, everyone). It brilliantly catalogs the myriad of contradictions surrounding the idea of family: they are the ones we love most and our connections to them are tribal in nature and go deeper than any other we encounter in life, but rarely are these connections interrogated, rarely do they extend past our mere familial duty to our relatives and sadly, most of the time, the rift between loved ones is something that can’t be repaired no many how many Christmas dinners there are. With this novel, Franzen captured it perfectly with a compelling narrative that is sweeping yet intimate, sad and tragic but always hopeful. The book begins in the basement of the Lambert household where Alfred, the family patriarch, restless and confused finds himself in the basement, the ancient Ping-Pong table covered in postal detritus. He argues with his Enid, almost saintly in her hopeless optimism, about a letter from Alfred’s old job. It is a striking image of decay that lingers throughout the book, this once hopeful family, after many setbacks and disappointments, is messy beyond repair and ready to collapse. We are introduced to their three children, scattered all over the country each in their own private hell. There is Chip, the middle son who picks them up from the airport in New York. The least successful of the three children, Chip is a disgraced gender studies professor who becomes entangled in a plot to defraud American investors devised by the Lithuanian refuge whose wife he was dating. Gary, the oldest son, is a successful stockbroker, who’s on the edge of depression with a wife and three kids who are not helping him in the slightest. Denise, the youngest daughter, is a famous chef whose promiscuity and affairs with her boss and her boss’s wife cost her her job. The key to Franzen's genius is the many risks he takes throughout this story. His descriptions are rich in detail clever and very funny and he is so good that they rarely slip into a sort of gross parody of good writing. And some of the more crazy situations, such as Alfred’s fecal hallucinations, Chip’s drug trip and Gary’s home repair mishap, reminded me of similar scenes in Infinite Jest, where something so absurd is also very poignant and, underneath it all, very sad. The last section is an absolute beast and I think the book’s reputation depends on this one last Christmas, where the Lamberts decision, one a lot of people have to make, is rendered beautifully with a perfect last line. If you have not read this book, I urge you to do so. It’s as good as everyone says it is, especially reading it a second time. 

Rating: 5/5