[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 26 KB, 380x471, franzen1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1050315 No.1050315 [Reply] [Original]

So as I'm checking out at a store, on the magazine racks I see the new issue of TIME. I see this guy on the cover. Jonathan Franzen. Apparently he is one of the great novelists of our time. Anybody read him? I had never heard of him.

>> No.1050336
File: 135 KB, 499x769, Franzen_Freedom_cover..jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1050336

He's a down-to-earth, homespun, cantankerous central midwesterner. He writes stories about America and American families.

He tries to act much more serious than he winds up coming across. At first I was turned off by this, but I like it now. He's pretty human.

>> No.1050333

good enough for oprah

>> No.1050343

I see through your weak disguise King, you will never be an important writer. Never.

>> No.1050344

Never heard of him.

>> No.1050402

>>1050336
so he writes books about giant birds? wtf

>> No.1050413

>>1050402
Weird, that's exactly what I told my mom when I tried to hype her up for reading this one with me.

>> No.1050442

He's an appalling writer. Third-person banalities about people who don't deserve to live. If there's a thing I HATE, HATE HAAAAATE, it's 'down-to-earth' people. 'Down-to-earth' always means closed-minded and loudly opinionated.

>> No.1050450

>>1050442

"Down to earth" people is synonymous with "boring people". Either way, I don't for them either.

>> No.1050458

>>1050450

For real.

When I think of down-to-earth I think of either Auntie Mama from The Cleveland Show or The Littlest Hobo.

>> No.1050467

He's typical of that sort of John-Boy Walton type, prominent in American fiction, who eulogises the sort of people who never read his work and would personally despise him.

Then there's the Oprah affair, a great example of a downhome persona being revealed to conceal a contempt for the working-class.

>> No.1050584

I read part of his new book when it came out as an excerpt in the New Yorker and it was very meh tier.

also >>1050343 made me lol tremendously.

>> No.1050585

>>1050442
>>1050450
That's the point

>> No.1050598

>>1050584
Which one? The one with the rape or the one with the neighbor drama?

Rape was better

>> No.1050600

>>1050598
>Rape was better
It always is.

>> No.1050604

>>1050442
>If there's a thing I HATE, HATE HAAAAATE, it's 'down-to-earth' people. 'Down-to-earth' always means closed-minded and loudly opinionated.
sigh...

>> No.1050618

>>1050600
Rape.

>> No.1050640

>>1050585
>>1050618
Whoops. Those are me. I meant to tell the guy who asked I read the rape part. How this guy was so close with DFW when their writing styles are so different is beyond me.