The Corrections

A Novel

By: Jonathan Franzen

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

National Book Award, Fiction, 2001

The Corrections is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century - a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. After almost 50 years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives.

The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing specatcularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain on an affair with a married man - or so her mother fears.

Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to. Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.

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.

©2010 Jonathan Franzen (P)2010 Simon and Schuster

Uniquely divisive book.

I had heard that Jonathan Franzen was a darling of the New York critics. I didn't listen to this until now, 2018, partly because I have trouble generically listening to heavy tomes, and I also am skeptical of the stuff that the New York establishment is selling so hard. Nonetheless, Franzen and George are a marvelous twosome. The humor in the book is astonishing. Franzen's writing skills are captivating. I keep wanting to remember particular sentences and phrases, how sharply funny his descriptions are, and how George is able to turn the material into some of the funniest stuff I have ever read. I know that some readers will violently disagree with me. Nonetheless, I feel that the characters in the book are so acutely drawn, so deeply understood and explained: I can't think of another book that comes close to this. I laughed continuously at the "Axxon Corporation" road show, and at Gary's rage at his father for accepting a mere $5000 from them for his idea, an idea that is so complicated that I couldn't begin to decipher the techno-chemical-brain transmission jargon being paraded before me. And, Gary's incredibly poignant slip into depression when he has this completely lovely wife: so terrible and yet so brilliantly communicated. And the one son who has become so unbelievably spoiled that his parents are actually afraid of him! Frankenstein lives!
The portrait of New York City and the adventures of Chip, the man who is sliding down the academic slope so far that he winds up going to Lithuania with some criminal/politician: once again just amazing. The scene in which Chip runs away from his apartment where Enid, Alfred and Denise have all come to have lunch with him, solely to chase his cute little sex object and to try to rescue the nightmarishly bad manuscript that he has written: I was stunned. You can have Philip Roth, or John Cheever, or even Richard Russo, whom I love. Franzen is a true prodigy. I remember how funny it was when Portnoy made love to his family's dinner. It seems quaint now. When Gary slobbers all over himself fantasizing about his own wife, and is repulsed by the women who like him and approach him at work: his tension is truly palpable. I am reluctant to use the word genius, and I imagine that it will alienate the disapprovers in the crowd, but this is talent unlike other authors, even the ones who inspire awe and deep admiration in me. Tom Perry is one of these, a man who has effectively invented his own genre, who has compelled us to identify with and root for a man who is a cold, hired killer. I am not comparing these two men, but I am thrilled to live in a time when we can enjoy such gifts as these.
I cautiously recommend this book to you. You may well hate it. If you give it a chance, though, it will reward you with love and pathos and writing so funny that you will laugh, if not out loud, then quietly, with sharp appreciation.

4.85 stars.........simply fantastic

I would recommend this audiobook to anyone, regardless of the genre you typically enjoy. The story is great, and the narrator does a fantastic job. Guidall has the perfect voice for this performance. I can't stress this enough. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job with this material.

If you are a fan of great stories, great writing, and great narration, then this is the audiobook for you. I recommend it highly. This is my third Franzen book, and all of them are phenomenal. I can't decide which one I like best, but it's probably this one. If you like great literature, download this one today.

Overall rating: 4.85 stars

Absolute rubbish!

What can I possibly say about this tome? This almost Pulitzer winning, National Book Award winner, critically loved, Oprah Book Club selection? A book that has been fawned over since it was released back in 2001?

Well, to borrow a phrase from a review I read on Goodreads:

"A seemingly unending stream of word vomit.

I can think of no other way to describe this thing.

I really, really despised almost everything about The Corrections. I finished it solely so that I could write a horrible review and have it be valid."

Honestly, I couldn't have put it better, myself. The characters are just as atrocious as the plot. The only character that I felt any sympathy towards was Alfred; and even that was at the end of the book when he's in dire straights, health wise (it's no spoiler - he spends most of the book this way. It just gets worse towards the end).

I found this book so insufferable that I slept through large parts of it (thankfully I listened to it as opposed to subjecting my eyes to it) and turned the speed up to 1.5 just to burn through it.

In fact, the best thing about this giant turd of a novel is that I finally finished it and I can sufficiently warn people against ever subjecting themselves to it.

Please, don't be like me and get sucked in by all the hype. I promise you, it's not worth it.

Contemporary Literature at it's best

Franzen and Guidall are a perfect formula for a successful literary novel. The Lambert family is so funny, sad, hopeful and disastrous that I was unaware that all the 568 pages had passed me by. Franzen's gift for allowing characters to drift, grow and develop their self awareness have made me a devotee of all his work so far.

Definitely recommended as worth your time and credit.

Even more meaningful than I remember the first tim

Read this for a second time after passage of a decade. Hadn't remembered how depressing the story was, and how frustrating the characters, but was stunned by how very deeply down the book made me feel without allowing me to separate from it. I had to keep reading. The prose is beautiful and continues to draw you in for even the saddest and most absurd developments. There is a line in this book that i love about how can one even stand when you don't understand how difficult another's life can be. It is such an amazing and critical line that it stays after with me long after I have finished the book. THat is why I read. I want to imagine how difficult it is to live someone else's life because that understanding makes life easier to live for me. I found this an amazingly honest and compassionate book despite how very uncompassionate it starts out.The reader is excellent although the woman's characters got sort of high-pitched voices that can be really irritating.Excellent narrator and interpretation. Highly recommended

"Grandly Entertaining"? Really?

Any additional comments?

I do not consider raising my anxiety level to the max by putting me in the midst of the most hopeless and unlovable family I have ever come to know entertaining. If this is a true representation of " the American society and the American soul" we are doomed. The author is amazingly skilled at his ability to portray believable characters. The problem for me was I didn't want to know them. I didn't even want to face the possibility people as despairingly undone as this are among us. I was never more glad when this ended and I could leave their world. The narrator did a fine job of conveying the utter doom of the whole story. As gifted as he is, I fear to read anything else by Franzen. There could be knives too available nearby.

Dark, hilarious, excruciating and beautifully read

George Guidall's rendition of this pitch-perfect portrait of neurotic dysfunction is brilliant. Only slightly exaggerated, the interior worlds of these generally unlikeable persons emerge with poignant and uncomfortable clarity.

A satisfying listen

I really got into this book and it stands out as one of my favorite listens. It's a character driven book and the story and characters felt really true to life in a quirky way. The observations woven into the story on life, family and marriage brought the story to another level for me. Franzen's other book Freedom seems to be more reviewed. I have listened to both and prefer this one. George Guidall does his usual fantastic job as a narrator.

Even Guidall couldn't get me far into this one.

The author seemed bent on impressing us with wordplay rather than plot or character development. Sadly, even George Guidall, an excellent narrator, could not keep me engaged.

Painful for me, because I'm the same age as "Al"

Where does The Corrections rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This ranks in the middle 50%. I went on forever with drawn out sub plots. I identified with the main character and that made it painful. I'll try another Franzen book and see f I can get through it without getting frustrated.

What did you like best about this story?

That George Guidall was the reader.

Have you listened to any of George Guidall’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

You know, that's a hard one for me to answer. EVERYTHING that George Guidall reads comes to life. It's quite amazing. The way that he can truly separate one character from another; the way that he does wormen just makes him the very best in this art form..I have reached a point in my audio book listening experience that has me looking for books that he has read, no matter that I have no idea about the author or plot. I felt the same way about Muller and sorry that he has passed and there will be no more.

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

Al's infirmity got to me. I'm his age.

Any additional comments?

Keep 'em coming.