Book Review: Freedom

I just finished Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. From Amazon:

"A wrenching, funny, and forgiving portrait of a Midwestern family. Patty and Walter Berglund find each other early: a pretty jock, focused on the court and a little lost off it, and a stolid budding lawyer, besotted with her and almost burdened by his integrity. They make a family and a life together, and, over time, slowly lose track of each other. Their stories align at times with Big Issues--among them mountaintop removal, war profiteering, and rock'n'roll--and in some ways can't be separated from them, but what you remember most are the characters, whom you grow to love the way families often love each other: not for their charm or goodness, but because they have their reasons, and you know them."

This book is not for the faint of heart. I read The Corrections back in 2002 & I remember feeling the same way at the end of it - glad I read it, but glad it's over. If you enjoyed The Corrections, then I definitely recommend Freedom, but if you're unfamiliar with Franzen's style, then you might want to make sure you know what you're getting into, especially with a book this size (576 pages).

That being said, I really liked Freedom. The characters are well developed & their stories are well told. Of course, I also really enjoyed the political aspects of this book, but that's just me. Some of my girl friends have read it & also liked it, but I'm interested to hear a male's perspective since, in my opinion, it's written for a man. I don't know exactly why I feel that way, but I do.

Again, I highly recommend this book, although I do feel that it's written for those of us with a little bit of a dark side. Those of you with glasses half full, sunnier dispositions & a belief that marriage is a Celine Dion song, will hate this book.