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Victor Smart

Cry and laugh freedom

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 April 2011

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Franzen is a not just a celebrated writer, he is revered. And Freedom, which appears a decade after The Corrections, has an epic quality. It is by turns hugely entertaining and miserabilist, tightly written and over-long, frustrating and ravagingly intense. It has deliberate echoes of Tolstoy, though mercifully it comes in at around half the length of the thousand-pager Anna Karenina.

To my mind, the sheer quality of the characterisation is stunning; it is as though a layer of old varnish has been wiped from some familiar painting to reveal the human personalities beneath. Of the four members in the middle class strife-torn Berglund family, the book's principal protagonists, I could swear I have previously met three in real life.

If you are attuned to it, the writing, arch and witty, is a breeze. Franzen is inventive and playful and ironic. There are sentences aplenty to savour. Most especially he weaves demotic/colloquial and literary together, the debased with the high-flown. Snow is "newly barfed upon" and "the fu**kedness of the world" is a recurring theme. And this is Franzen on the Volvo 240, the iconic transport of the 1980s middle-classes. "Did your 240 have that problem with the sticky parking-brake cable? And that enigmatically labeled dashboard switch that made such a satisfying Swedish click but seemed not be to connected to anything: what was that?"

Franzen is in uncompromising mood after labouring on this work for ten years and knowing that the publisher and public are ready to devour the book. This is a book full-on about the human condition, and some will find it too earnest. Though often hilarious, there is a deep-dyed pessimism to much of the it. I don't find it gloomy exactly - there is too much life being lived, sex being had, selves discovered, money made and lost and comic plots twists. But Franzen won't, as he might conceivably put it, "do the placebo thing". He so resolutely refuses to sugar-coat the pill that fifty pages from the end you wonder if there is going to be any redemptive outcome at all. There are also so many contemporary references to politics, politicians, rock bands and so forth that it seems designed to ensure that Freedom will date fast.

One thing that's worth noting is the prominence given to the subject of depression. The principal protagonists all contend with the malady, one even muses on its evolutionary basis. Patty and Walter, staunch "liberals", both who could be said to "care too much", suffer, one persistently and another in reaction to tragedy. But then the author also visits depression on their Republican-leaning, out-for-myself son. Indeed no one seems to evade it. Maybe Frazen's is asserting that our experience of depression is central to our lived lives, that it is mainstream, not aberrant. Or maybe he simply wants to "out" the topic. Still, a bit heavy-handed.

Franzen has boundless reserves of what one reviewer calls, moral intelligence. To my mind Freedom succeeds brilliantly. Here is a thrilling book packed with vivid insight into ourselves.

The fly in the ointment is the title. It was famously said that human kind cannot stand too much reality. And Franzen seems to want to add, and it cannot cope with too much freedom either. Indeed the publisher's blurb instructs us on the subject of the book:"the temptation and burdens of too much liberty". Anyway, it is a relief at the end of book to discover that Franzen judgement on us and the human predicament, though harsh, is more generous than expected.

3 people found this helpful

FunOne

Well observed and beautifully described

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 July 2021

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The book takes a little while to get going but the characters are beautifully drawn and grow on you. The observations of American stereotypes are spot on. The individuals are woven into the political and social landscape of the times. An enriching read.

One person found this helpful

Paolo Fiori

Middle-class Middle-aged saga

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 February 2012

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I was looking forward to this, having read The Corrections not so long ago. Perhaps if I'd left it longer the similarities between the two books wouldn't have been as painfully obvious.

Once again Franzen writes beautifully, trying to reflect the American dream as lived by a 'typical' American family where dysfunction is the norm and friction is not too far from the surface.

Once again we have multiple perspectives and story arcs that intertwine to give us a voyage through their lives. It's hard to say that the characters are likeable but some of the scenarios would be familiar to most people with teenage (or older) children and Franzen is a master of reflecting the nuances of familial relationships. He can also be bitingly witty at times, so much so that the situations become a form of satire.

The key problems for me were in the similarities of the family breakdown between this and The Corrections, I felt that I probably didn't need to read both books and having done so would have said that the earlier novel has more truth, wisdom and humour.

All this said it's still a remarkable piece of writing, perhaps laboured in places and with its conscience worn like a badge of honour but still head and shoulders above most of the novels I'll probably read this year.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Gripping

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 November 2021

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But too long and too much preaching..otherwise totally engaging family saga . Some rather unlikely events and the end was perhaps a bit too tidy.

I B Hudson

Twists and turns

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2021

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I first read the corrections and thoroughly enjoyed it so I thought try another. This book is again full of twists and I was not expecting the actual ending. I was left wanting to know more about Joey and Jessica. Brilliant

One person found this helpful

Kym Hamer

Not for me at all

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2018

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Good heavens what a trawl this book turned out to be. The bones of a good story were definitely there but they just got buried...by what I'm not entirely sure. Too much detail maybe? Also the occasional switching to the voice of the auto-biographer was weird and off-putting. Not for me at all and most likely my last attempt at Franzen.

Elizabeth Knowles

Another epic novel from Franzen

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 February 2020

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A superb story which takes you in from the early pages and you find yourself unable to put it down. A love and at the same time dislike for most of the characters doesn't take away any part of this fantastically written story. I would read anything he writes!

One person found this helpful

lindsey

A strange title.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2015

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I'm not sure why this novel has this title unless it is ironic. The main characters all seem to act blindly in response to their childhood needs and with little self awareness. Unfortunately, they are also fairly unlike able. The writing has a compelling quality and suitable classical allusions. There is also some degree of redemption at the end. Despite these criticisms, I found it worth reading.

One person found this helpful

Joseph

If you like Franzen, you'll like this.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 December 2021

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If not quite a 'Great American Novel', certainly a very good American novel. Freedom captures the hopes and anxieties of America and examines them through the detailed lens of a single family. For me it lacked the comedy of The Corrections which had me laughing out loud in public.

Colm Chase

A marmite moment

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2014

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This book split my book club down the middle. Many people really loved it and a couple like me really hated it. I found it over long, lacking in storyline and totally incredible. Others in the group found the style of writing excellent and the characterisation of the leading female character to be compelling. I guess this is one of those marmite moments which makes life so interesting

3 people found this helpful

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5 star		52%
4 star		23%
3 star		11%
2 star		6%
1 star		7%

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