NP: Franzen

[Carvill John]

>Franzen as a person kind of annoys me, but IMHO 'The Corrections' is the 
>best American novel so far in the 21st century

I read the first chapter online and hated it, but the book kept being 
mentioned and recommended and lauded, and I eventually gave it another go 
and liked it once I got into it, so if anyone starts it and doesn't like it, 
give it until chapter 2 or 3 before quitting. It's a very *enjoyable* book, 
its main faults being a couple of sections which don't work and should have 
been cut, eg the segment set in an Eastern European country. Also, it's not 
as literary as Franzen obviously intends it to be. But in terms of a big 
blockbusting 'buzz' book, it's a lot better than, say, Donna Tartt's 'The 
Secret History'.