The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen, 2001
★ 3.85 from 205.3k ratings on Goodreads
A Midwestern family, three grown children and a failing patriarch, over one last Christmas — a comedy of money, pills and resentment. A sharp, satirical family chronicle that moves between uneasy humor and quiet dread, with voices that feel clever, restless and often annoyed.
Feels like unease, humor and melancholy. About family, society and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy literary family sagas with flawed, sharply drawn characters and a satirical eye on middle-class American life. Some readers find the people unlikeable and the book bloated or grating, so the company can wear thin.
Why read it
You get a closely observed portrait of a family negotiating money, pride and disappointment, and a satire that still cuts at status chasing.
A page from the book
The arithmetic of cool, and who is left to do the ordinary work.
All around him, millions of newly minted American millionaires were engaged in the identical pursuit of feeling extraordinary - of buying the perfect Victorian, of skiing the virgin slope, of knowing the chef personally, of locating the beach that had no footprints. There were further tens of millions of young Americans who didn’t have money but were nonetheless chasing the Perfect Cool. And meanwhile the sad truth was that not everyone could be extraordinary, not everyone could be extremely cool; because whom would this leave to be ordinary? Who would perform the thankless work of being comparatively uncool? What readers say
Readers are sharply divided: many find the family saga gripping and emotionally affecting, praising its flawed characters and craft, while others are repelled by the unlikeable people and find the book bloated or grating.
Jonathan Franzen.Franzen's third novel won the 2001 National Book Award; that same autumn his public hesitation over Oprah Winfrey's book club made him far more famous than the prize did.
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Corrections for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy literary family sagas with flawed, sharply drawn characters and a satirical eye on middle-class American life. Some readers find the people unlikeable and the book bloated or grating, so the company can wear thin.
- What is The Corrections like?
- A sharp, satirical family chronicle that moves between uneasy humor and quiet dread, with voices that feel clever, restless and often annoyed. Feels like unease, humor and melancholy. About family, society and identity.
- What should I read after The Corrections?
- If you liked The Corrections, try Big Little Lies (Liane Moriarty), The Nanny Diaries (Emma McLaughlin) and Jailbird (Kurt Vonnegut).
A taste of the feed
A job interview where neither person will say the word job.
This is the only part of the Interview that resembles a professional exchange. We will dance around certain words, such as “nanny” and “child care,” because they would be distasteful and we will never, ever, actually acknowledge that we are talking about my working for her. This is the Holy Covenant of the Mother/Nanny relationship: this is a pleasure—not a job. We are merely “getting to know each other,” much as how I imagine a John and a call girl must make the deal, while trying not to kill the mood.
The Nanny Diaries · Emma McLaughlin
The day a parent stops being a god and becomes a person.
As you grew up, when you were grown, totally unknown to yourself, you confused your father with God. You never saw him as a man with a man’s heart, and a man’s failings—I’ll grant you it may have been hard to see, he makes so few mistakes, but he makes ’em like all of us.
Go Set a Watchman · Harper Lee
What it costs to leave before they name your punishment.
It took him only a few moments to reach that decision. The council would not act hastily; it never did. There would have to be long speeches, condemning him, but if this child’s father had actually used the word punish, a much more serious penalty than outlawing might be in store. His enemies had grown so outspoken that some might even demand death; if they convinced themselves that he was indeed a spy for the northern tribes, this would be logical.
Chesapeake · James Michener
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