The Corrections »

Best known for his National Book Award-winning novel The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen is equally adept at turning out elegant essays, social commentary, and cultural criticism.

Stretching from the Midwest at midcentury to the Wall Street and Eastern Europe of today, The Corrections brings an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental health care, and globalized greed. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious, deeply humane, it confirms Jonathan Franzen as one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.

Miami Herald

Wonderously devastating . . . In prose that is by turns suspenseful, brooding, and, oh yes, compassionate, Franzen unrolls the huge, bleak panorama of the Lamberts' past and present lives, their temptations, failures, mistakes and false hopes, their intimate acquaintance with the hot flash of selfishness and the sharp bitterness of rue.

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A TOUR OF THE BOOK: an overview of the book
Home for the Holidays: The Corrections ditches mistletoe and yuletide cheer for Baltic mobsters, talking turds, and drug-smuggling housewives. 21
JOURNEYS: the characters and their stories
The Corrections We Make: Franzen shows us how each of our lives is a series of corrections-our attempts to correct the faults of our parents and the mistakes of our pasts. 31
POINTS OF VIEW: a conversation about The Corrections
Bringing It All Back Home: Looking past the media storm, what do readers of The Corrections really think about the novel? 49
A WRITER'S LIFE: Jonathan Franzen's story
Resurrecting the Great Novel: Franzen worked his way into the heart of the American literary scene with his fiction, his essays, and his stated goal of writing the next Great American Novel. 53
THE WORLD OUTSIDE: the Lamberts' 1990s America
Keeping Up With the Lamberts: From St. Jude to Manhattan, Lithuania to a cruise ship, Franzen's characters can't escape the great American rat race. 57
A BRIEF HISTORY: the critics respond to The Corrections
The Oprah Wars
The Corrections brought Franzen fame and fortune-and a ten-round grudge match with the most powerful woman in media. 61
EXPLORE: Other Books of Interest
Books to consider reading next: In writing The Corrections and his earlier novels, Franzen has turned to a number of American literary giants for inspiration.