Title: Freedom: A NovelAuthor: Jonathan Franzen
I promised a review of Freedom, and although it's a little late (yes, I forgot), I'm back. My word is my bond and all that. Anyway, I really liked the first 300 pages of Freedom. I was captivated by the somewhat unlikely love story of Patty and Walter Berglund and the struggles they were having with their children. But about halfway through the novel, I realized that there wasn't one person in the story I liked: not unhappy, cheating Patty, not sanctimonious, boring Walter, not their cheating and sanctimonious kids, not Walter's potential fling or Patty's longtime man-on-the-side (who happened to be Walter's best friend). In the end, Franzen created a novel of such unlikeable characters that it was hard to finish, or root for anyone in the story. I do like how the story ended, with a note of hope, but my goodness, getting there felt like being trapped at a very dysfunctional family dinner at times.
2 comments:
After this massive block, is Fall of Giants in your queue??!!!
So far I've avoided any and all Ken Follett. He scares me. :)
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