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The Corrections: A Novel (Paperback)
by Jonathan Franzen
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A Sentimental Education: Sex and the Literary Writer 31
The word that made me lift my fingers from the keyboard was "clitoris." Was it okay to use this word? What would my fellow literary writers, my former teachers and classmates at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop think of me?
Peeling Back the Oprah Seal: Ayana Mathis's Twelve Tribes of Hattie 7
It is high time defenders of American literary fiction cut Oprah Winfrey a break.
A Year in Reading: Michael Robbins 2
It’s hilarious and sad and all the usual things we say a work of literature is when we mean it seems to contain all of life.
A Year in Reading: Lydia Kiesling 4
As usual, to compose my Year in Reading is to confront my failures.
Timing Is Everything: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 3
There are few iron facts in the crapshoot of the literary life, but here’s one: In book publishing — no less than in music, war, and sex — timing is everything.
Why Does Everyone Love It But Me? An Interview with Daniel Mendelsohn 15
For the record no serious critic goes into a job planning to do a takedown. All I heard about Mad Men was that it was great...I sat in my bedroom watching with a good friend of mine and we looked at each other after three episodes and I said, “The love is not happening.” Then it becomes interesting.
The Prizewinners 2011/12 0
With the awarding of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the 2011/2012 literary award season is now over, which gives us the opportunity to update our list of prizewinners.
Confessions of a Literary Jingoist 8
It’s an age-old complaint, but things don’t really seem to be changing. You can seek out literature from just about anywhere — and now it’s easier than any previous point in history — but it’s a hell of a lot harder to bring it into the conversation.
The Bathrobe Era: What the Death of Print Newspapers Means for Writers 21
We are creating a generation of riff artists, who see their job not as creating wholly new original projects but as commenting upon cultural artifacts that already exist.
The Books We Come Back To 59
It shows adulthood and devotedness, I think, to try and get back to a book you love, every four seasons or so. So which books do you all reread yearly, or biannually, or quadrennially, or decennially, and why?
HBO (Isn’t) Filming The Corrections at My Parents’ House: TV and Fiction 16
She cut me off and asked whether she should call HBO. She added that they offered anywhere between $1,000 and $3,000 for every day they were filming. My response was something along the lines of: "YOU HAVE TO TELL THEM THAT YOU WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO FILM THIS SHOW IN OUR HOUSE.”
William Kennedy's Long Dry Spell Ends with Chango's Beads and Two-Toned Shoes 3
Along the way there will be a duel, a failed assassination attempt, gun-running, Santeria rituals, kidnapping, torture, scorching sex, and, finally, a coveted interview with Fidel Castro. The storytelling has the irresistible pull of a riptide.
The Prizewinners 2010/2011 1
With the awarding of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the 2010/2011 literary award season is now over, which gives us the opportunity to update our list of prizewinners.
Pitons in the Monolith: Jonathan Franzen's Despair and the Millennials' Dream 19
The crisis Franzen described 15 years ago this month would seem doubly urgent for today’s young writers, yet twentysomethings are entering the literary arena in droves. The question’s not “Why Bother?” but “What gives?”
The Big Show: Franzen, Goodman, and 'The Great American Novel' 19
The Cookbook Collector’s literary elegance is part of what made the book invisible to a broad public, while Franzen’s roaring crassness is part of what made his book such a smash. He’s just a lot louder than she is.
A Year in Reading: Lydia Kiesling 0
It disturbed me profoundly, and that has to count for something.
A Year in Reading: Joanna Smith Rakoff 3
I found myself thinking about that long-ago interview—the advice he’d unknowingly doled out—and picking up some of the shorter novels on my bookshelves.
The Book as Cross-Town Bus: The Pleasures of Hometown Reading 0
Reading about one’s hometown doesn’t transport so much as extend, enlarging our maps with each page. Whether in comics, films, or novels, this verisimilitude is a gift—recognition that you actually exist.
Tough Love: A Review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom 18
With 2001's The Corrections, Franzen would seem to have perfected his maximalist method. What might it mean to say that his new novel, Freedom, finds him maturing?
The Prizewinners 2009/2010 2
With the awarding of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the 2009/2010 literary award season is now over, which gives us the opportunity to update our list of prizewinners.
It's Not You, It's Me: Breaking Up With Books 75
Recently it struck me that the list of books I’ve started and not finished has grown quite formidable. I ask myself what this “means,” if it reflects some kind of moral devolution.
The Millions Top Ten: May 2010 0
Tinkers debuts and The Corrections graduates. Plus, a controversial new number one.
The Millions Top Ten: April 2010 3
Franzen stays on top. Sebald to the Hall of Fame. Tolstoy debuts.
The Millions Top Ten: March 2010 2
David Mitchell graduates to the Hall of Fame, Michael Lewis debuts, and we have a new number one.
An Exclusive Look at the Cover of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom 12
We learned recently that Jonthan Franzen's long-awaited follow-up to The Corrections, a new novel called Freedom, will arrive at the end of August.
The Millions Top Ten: February 2010 0
Cloud Atlas keeps the top spot. Reality Hunger debuts.
The Millions Top Ten: January 2010 1
Cloud Atlas keeps the top spot. Stoner and Wolf Hall debut.
Most Anticipated: The Great 2010 Book Preview 68
There's something for every lover of fiction coming in 2010, but, oddly enough, the dominant theme may be posthumous publication.
The Millions Top Ten: December 2009 2
Four books debut on the list: Powell, McCann, Pevear and Volokhonsky, and Bouillier. David Mitchell vaults into the top spot.
The Millions Top Ten: November 2009 1
Dave Eggers opens and closes the list. Franzen debuts. And Atwood returns.
Goodbye to Oprah's Golden Ticket 35
In a literary world where writers are playing the lottery against the longest of odds, Oprah was the winning ticket. But in less than two years, the ultimate book publicity coup will be off the table.
Dissecting the List: An Excursus 1
It's probably its hospitality to debate that makes the "Best Of" list so popular in the first place. One can agree - yes! great list! - or dissent - Where is x? Why no y? - or inveigh against list-making itself, but in any case, the list holds up a mirror to one's own preoccupations. As with any mirror, it is fearsomely hard to look away.
Best Fiction of the Millennium (So Far): Honorable Mention 5
As we sifted through the ballots, what struck us was not a "unified sensibility," but an exhilarating diversity, which we plan to share with you in the coming days.
Best of the Millennium, Pros Versus Readers 83
Our distinguished panel selected 20 incredible books as their Best of the Millennium (So Far). What were our readers' favorites from the decade now coming to a close?
#1: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen 35
In the spring and summer of 2001, people who were listening could hear The Corrections coming.
Ask a Book Question: #74 (Just One Book) 32
If you could read just one novel, what would it be?