This is a book about a deeply unhappy family, how they came to be unhappy, and how their unhappiness makes them treat each other. It has a sort of happy ending, although I would have liked one more wrap-up section with Joey, because teenage marriages based on cheating and misery don't usually go well. The narrative voice is really interesting and I liked the way the beginning of the book basically tells you everything that's going to happen because I'm the type to get confused during a sprawling three generation book. Selfish people make me really unhappy, so there were a bunch of passages about family interaction that made me wince and almost walk away.
Every time anyone used the word "freedom," whether they were talking about cheating on each other, dying, saving the South American birds, or the invasion of Iraq, I was I kept wanting to underline things, as if some English professor was going to jump out from behind a bush and demand I write a 20 page essay on the way "Freedom" affected each member of the Berglund family and whether Franzen is ultimately arguing that freedom is good or bad for them. (...bad? I think?) I came away with the same feeling I had in college lit seminars; I know I understood the book as a story about Patty and Walter's marriage. I am not sure I understood all the themes and meanings and I am going to have to ask some of my smarter friends to explain what I missed.
Grade: C
Originally posted 2010
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