Freedom

A Novel

By: Jonathan Franzen

Narrated by: David LeDoux

Length: 24 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

From the National Book Award-winning author of The Corrections, a darkly comedic novel about family.

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul - the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter - environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man - she was doing her small part to build a better world. But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz - outré rocker and Walter's college best friend and rival - still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become “a very different kind of neighbor,” an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's intensely realized characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

©2010 Jonathan Franzen (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"The Great American Novel." ( Esquire)

"It’s refreshing to see a novelist who wants to engage the questions of our time in the tradition of 20th-century greats like John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis . . . [This] is a book you’ll still be thinking about long after you’ve finished reading it." (Patrick Condon, Associated Press)

“Writing in prose that is at once visceral and lapidary, Mr. Franzen shows us how his characters strive to navigate a world of technological gadgetry and ever-shifting mores, how they struggle to balance the equation between their expectations of life and dull reality, their political ideals and mercenary personal urges. He proves himself as adept at adolescent comedy as he is at grown-up tragedy; as skilled at holding a mirror to the world his people inhabit day by dreary day as he is at limning their messy inner lives . . . Mr. Franzen has written his most deeply felt novel yet—a novel that turns out to be both a compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

"Freedom" well worth pursuing

This is a listen that is deep and long...with a great story, four characters I cared about and a very good narration. Franzen can write...there are sexy scenes, painful scenes, riffs that made me laugh...others that made me cringe...It's a big feeling book...and I mean that positively ....If you're a fiction lover...you'll become hooked fairly early. It's justifiably one of the 2010 NYTBR five best fiction books...

Excellently believable character development.

The "Burglands?" (spelling*), were so lifelike, so fleshed out and complete; I love them all. Franzen is a master craftsman. Freedom was heartbreaking, tantalising, hillarious, devistating, and frustrating to the point of nausea, but also extreamly satisfying.Me thinks this book a new favorite of mine. I will deffinately be rereading it more than once in years to come.

Compelling Story, Engaging Reading

I keep wanting to hear more, which is unexpected for a story about dysfunctional middle-class people. Part of it is good writing, and part is a reader who manages to stay interesting without ever being overly dramatic.

ruined by narrator

This was not a bad story, but the nonstop snarkiness of the reader absolutely ruined it for me.

A New Franzen Fan

Had never read Franzen, tho had heard bought "Corrections" but had never read it. After reading "Freedom" I'm ready to keep up the momentum.

Engaging throughout and the narration was really good. In my top ten list of audiobooks.

Writer, writer, writer

Would you listen to Freedom again? Why?

No, very rarely read books twice. Just me, not a reflection of the subject or writer.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Surprised (and I didn't think I could be surprised anymore) and that was a good thing!

Would you listen to another book narrated by David LeDoux?

Did not like the voice he did for Patty Berglund. But other than that, good, and got me through the few (very few) dry spots.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

First, so let me say I am not a fiction reader. But needed to start somewhere! I actually did not want like any of the characters, wasn't intriqued by the story - the journey - yet read this all the way to the end. It is the writing! Franzen captured me - this surly, unsophisticated, lazy (will just put it down and not pick it up again type person, won't struggle through anything! I am not proud of this fact!) reader.

My only comparison (am I completely off base here?) is Anna Karenina. Read it finally a few years ago, and was not passionate about Anna, or Karenin, or many of the characters(except maybe Levin and Kitty) ,and could not necessarily relate and Anna was so one dimensional to me, but some how loved just reading it and the comprehensiveness of the story - the intersecting lives of the many characters. It just seems that the writing moves it all along and the reader gets lost on each page in the descriptions of moods or scenery or thoughts - what ever is being conveyed at that moment.. I read too much history and biography books.

Franzen writes in such a way the reader wants to to know the journey, whether or not relating to or even liking the characters and/or their choices.

Maybe the secret is Franzen makes you think about your own life, choices, and journey even if different from the books characters.

Worth the read!

Different definitions, as it should be

It's rare to be moved to tears at the end of a novel, but Freedom had that effect on me. I was surprised at how much I was rooting for all of the complicated, and sometimes repulsive, characters in this book, but I welcomed the gentle resolutions Mr. Franzen crafted for each of them. What people think of as "freedom" is not always all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes freedom reaches it's highest expression when we are tightly bound to others - a point that my tears told me was most true for me.

Snarky/Sacrastic Narration

LeCoux read with such snarky sarcasm that he left me no room to discover for myself who these characters were. He seemed hung up on punctuating everything with cleverness and attitude. It really pissed me off. But I slogged through it. I need to go back now and actually read the book to see if I can relate to the characters better than I could by listening to the narration; to see if I can care about them.

Thought I'd like it more

Would you try another book from Jonathan Franzen and/or David LeDoux?

Maybe

If you’ve listened to books by Jonathan Franzen before, how does this one compare?

Have not listened

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Any additional comments?

I just didnt love any of the characters enough to care what happened to them. I'm not sure if it is the book or because it was audio from, but the characters just didn't resonate with me. And I feel bad saying all this, I thought I'd love the book

On my top 5 list

This is truly great work. I typically only listen to audio books when I???m traveling or working in the yard, but I found my sitting in my room just listening. The characters are so well developed and the writing so witty that I laughed out loud in several spots. It is a long book, but the narration and writing were so good I found myself sad when it was over.