Franzen, if he interests you ...

Toby G Levy tobylevy at juno.com
Tue Jul 16 08:00:15 CDT 2002


MalignD wrote:
> > I recently read Jonathan Franzen's book, The Corrections, which I 
found
> > pretty terrific and recommend to any who might consider it.
> > Franzen is one of a number of writers (Foster Wallace, Richard 
Powers,
>>  Neal Stephenson) deemed Pynchon wannabes.  It doesn't seem
particularly  apt in
> > Franzen's case.  

I read The Corrections several months ago.  I had read Franzen's first
two novels a couple of years ago.  The first novel "The Twenty-Seventh
City" was an absurd quasi-mystery story, but showed potential.  The
second novel "Strong Motion" was much better, still more like a ground
rule double than a home run, but left me looking forward to his next
book.

I was alerted to Franzen in the first place by a positive review of
"Strong Motion" right here on the P-List.  But in everything I've read by
and about Franzen, I would say he is much more of a Gaddis wannabe than
Pynchon.  More about this in a minute.

MalignD continues:
> > He has an apparently formidable intellect, but it  is very
> > different from Pynchon's or, at least, he puts it to very  different
use;
> > i.e., Franzen uses his erudition to support and enrich the story 
he's telling
> > whereas I think of Pynchon using his erudition to connect the  themes
he
> > develops to events and ideas outside his novels.  In this sense, 
Franzen
> > reminds me more of Bellow that Pynchon.  

This ability of Pynchon to use his incredible brain power to  take
everything in the eternal human condition and relate it to the complex
world of the present is what makes Pynchon to me the most important
author in my lifetime by miles and miles.  

MalignD continues:
>> Also, Franzen is very  strong at what
> > I think is Pynchon's major weakness--creating rich, 
three-dimensional
> > characters.

I never really understood this criticism of Pynchon.  Way back in 1963
the first thing that drew me to him was the true to life character of
Benny Profane.  And I've read GR so many times over the years that I feel
like Tyrone Slothrop is part of my family.  Also, I thought the reviewers
were fairly unanimous in saying that after breathing life into Mason and
Dixon that this criticism is no longer valid.

But, yes, Franzen does do a great job with his characters.  These are
people I really came to care about.  And Franzen is an excellent
storyteller.  But there are dozens of writers I would put in that same
category.  It's kind of like baseball, where they say you can shake a
tree and dozens of great gloves fall out.  For example Mark Helprin is
about the most spell binding storyteller in recent memory, but he is
rarely placed at the forefront of important novelists.  Storytelling is
only a tool. 

MalignD concludes:
> > But the novel is funny,  smart, very well written, worthy, I 
>>  think, of its > hype.

I guess everyone has different ideas about what's funny, but I found very
little that made me even smile, let alone laugh, in "The Corrections." 
It was a good read, but if I had to give it a grade, I wouldn't go above
B minus.

Toby


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