/lit/ - Literature

>>23031621
Does a good job of showing that sort of self imposed isolation. The characters are never completely alone but that makes their isolation even more profound.

>>22430906
Maybe picrel? I don't recall if Patty had gotten a job before family but I believe she did. Or by "working women" do you mean hooker?

>>22408070
Reading books which confront you with your flaws strongly suggests self awareness. People who lack self awareness tend to read books which reinforce their beliefs and tell them they are right and good and if everyone was like them the world would be perfect! There are a great number of books which are big on the left and blatantly shit on the left to an extent no one could miss it, like picrel.

Thoughts on this book?

The narrative here is fine, the structure is good, but the prose and especially dialogue leaves a lot to be desired

>>21611070
I have been avoiding them.
>>21611119
Picrel is pretty much Franzen rewriting IJ in his own style, he adds in his own thing but it is built around IJ and follows its lead. Really good and would be a good followup for someone who wants more.

It really feels like it was huge and then nobody talks about it. I still think it holds up.

Patty likes her rebellious son so much because he reminds her of Richard. Even though she made the mistake of marrying Walter, her son gives her the illusion that she ended up with Richard after all.

This is why she’s broken so bad when the son leaves. She’s both being rejected by her son and being rejected by Richard. She’s realizing that if she had ended up with Richard she wouldn’t have been able to keep him.

Like and subscribe for more deep analysis.

So far it is really great, about 300 pages in. I do not think I have ever gotten so involved in the lives of the characters of a novel as I have with Freedom. I fear it ending and the sense of loss I will feel.

Just finished this bad boy, ama.

Also, what read next? I got a smaller book to read right after this, and then I'd be down to it.

>>10139737

>>10113785
Unironically by far my favorite read. Never have I felt so intimately connected to a novel and it's characters. They still live within me, as hokey as that seems. Franzen is a master.

>>9931809
Franzen somehow pisses off both SJW's for his erudition and avoidance of PC and 'highbrow' /lit/bois who think that any fiction not overwhelmingly difficult is for plebs or pseuds.
Read Freedom, read The Corrections. He's the best and most important author currently in their prime

And Moby-Dick. Halfway through For Whom the Bell tolls and it's 10/10 thus far.

Does this live up to the acclaim?

Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen.

What does /lit/ think of "The Great American Novel of the 21st century"?

I don't read much but I just read the first 200 pages of this. Why does Richard use the possessive gerund in casual conversation when he's supposed to be a scruffy punk rock college bad boy. I mean, the possessive fucking gerund? And am I seriously supposed to sympathize with this Patty? What a cunt. I can't believe he made me read 150 pages of that autobiography. And then I looked ahead and there is still more to the autobiography later on? What the fuck?

Is Franzen a hack?