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)

Disappointed by the narrator's interpretation

I couldn't stand listening to David LeDoux's voice. It was fairly tolerable for the first few hours, once Lalitha's character was introduced, his poor accents and cadences became so distracting that I had trouble getting into the scenes. LeDoux's pauses and inflections are so different from the way I imagine the characters speaking that I almost have to filter what they say in a way that feels like translating from a foreign language into English.

If I didn't have to complete the book by this Sunday for my reading group, I'd definitely just wait until I could get my hands on the physical book rather than sit through the rest of the recording. I don't like or feel sympathetic towards any of the characters, and after reading others' reviews of the audio version of the book, I believe it might be in part because of how they're being read aloud.

The book is ok, but feels too long and isn't as compelling as The Corrections. Parts have been interesting, but I find myself bored for long stretches. Overall, I'm disappointed.

Freedom: A Novel

A total bore! Franzen's character articulation is mediocre. The novel drags on and on and on. The story could be told in a lot fewer words. I listen to the book in my car and the narrator's voice is so dull I have to turn it off so as not to fall asleep. Too much hype over this book. I read it because of Oprah's ravings. Very disappointing.

Boring

I couldn't even finish listening to the first book. Too long and drawn out. I can't figure out why we need to know so much about each of the character's flaws. Naration is quite boring too, I cannot stay focused listening and find myself fading out for minutes at a time and then realizing I haven't missed anything.

A train wreck.

It was mostly the worst sides of people. Graphic, overly so, in their nastiness and obscenities. The characters' flaws are overemphasised to the point that the ensuing redemptions are paltry by comparison. You might feel good after reading this book by telling yourself, "At least I'm not as bad as that."

Unpleasant and Boring

I agree with many of the comments here. I did not like any of the characters or the reader. I finally decided that I could live with myself if I stopped listening, despite having paid for it. Yes, the writing is very good, but that cannot redeem it.

So-called ???contemporary literature??? at its worst

As a middle-aged woman of fairly traditional values, I gave up on this book before I had completed 1/3 of it. It recites instance after mind-numbing instance of individuals??? exercising abysmal judgement, destroying their lives and perpetuating their mindless kind. What is more, these are reasonably intelligent people who don???t care to learn from their mistakes, so mired in self-pity they are. It???s back to the rounded characters, adept writing and uplifting values of non-contemporary writing for me.

Unbearable

I listened to about 6 or 7 hours of this book while traveling and I just can't seem to get back to it to finish it. I read a lot of books and that's only happened once before. I just can't identify with the characters AT ALL. Maybe I'm supposed to hate them but I don't want to keep listening.

disappointing

I have listened to many books on audio and have never felt the need to write a review before, but this book was just awful. I made it through the first two parts (just) and cannot press play to start the third. So many words, the women in the story sad, pathetic and outright mean, the men selfish and thoughtless. Where did you go wrong Jonathan Franzen? Take a look at Tinkers before you start your next book, less is almost always more and shows the skill of an author.

Bloated and boring.

Unpleasant Experience

All of the characters are dysfunctional and unlikable. Listening to this story is like spending a month secluded with your least favorite relatives.

Some people seem to love this story. I don't get it, but I suspect they are just as unpleasant to be around as the characters in this book.

Ugggg! My mind is too numb for eloquence

I found myself dreading finishing this book. Several times I considered, deleting it to end my misery. The story had no joy; the key characters were self-absorbed and unsympathetic. The writing was good and so was the narration, but any bright spots were quickly dimmed by yet another crisis, drama, or diatribe. After years of misery, the characters were suddenly ‘all better’ eight minutes before the end of the book. Like I said...uggg!