Oprah Winfrey, one of the twin peaks of celebrity literary endorsement in the US along with Barack Obama, had added The Corrections to her book club, guaranteeing many more sales, but Franzen whisked it away, fearful that Oprah's sticker on his cover would deter male readers. The Corrections was a big, ambitious book: a family saga and a critique of modern America in one, but even as he rose into the light, Franzen was making trouble for himself. A new Franzen book wasn't always a big deal, and by the mid-1990s he had published two novels, The Twenty-Seventh City and Strong Motion, to what he called, in his essay Why Bother? from his collection How to Be Alone, "the silence of irrelevance".Īll that changed with his third novel, The Corrections, which had built up such juggernaut momentum in industry buzz and publicity that even publication a week before the US terror attacks on Septemcouldn't halt it. ![]() The truth, perhaps, is that he was never that cool in the first place, or, at least, that his time in the unshadowed sun was brief. When did the balance tip against him? When did Jonathan Franzen lose his cool? If Oyler is right that it's young people who disdain Franzen and all his works, then the trend is set, and his days are numbered. The world where, if Zadie Smith really did find The Corrections "impossible to dislike", she wasn't trying hard enough? Among young writers online, this is more controversial than any sex thing you can come up with". Or do you live in the world where Jonathan Franzen is not just a bad writer (" the plot here seems contrived and the characters fail to engage" – Kirkus) but a benchmark for everything that is wrong with modern literature? That is, the world critic Lauren Oyler evoked when, in a review of Torrey Peters' novel Detransition, Baby for the London Review of Books in May, she said: "The naughtiest thought I had while reading it is that the book recalls the work of Jonathan Franzen. Which world do you live in? The one where Franzen is a striding colossus of contemporary fiction, "a literary genius for our time" (The Guardian), "the novelist for our times" (Time), author of books such as Freedom, "a Great American Novel for our time" (Daily Telegraph) and The Corrections, "a moving epic for our time" (New York Magazine)? (Everyone agrees, it seems, that he is for our time.) As his new novel Crossroads is published, the battle is on once more. This can be the only explanation for why he polarises otherwise like-minded people – that gentle subset of humanity we call readers – in a way that even Donald Trump or Meghan Markle can't. ![]() From simple elements, she builds a powerful tale of hope and regret.Sometimes it seems like there are two people called Jonathan Franzen: the successful, acclaimed novelist, and his evil twin. “Ferrante’s prose is stunningly candid, direct and unforgettable. ![]() “Although much of the drama takes place in head, Ferrante’s gift for psychological horror renders it immediate and visceral.”- The New Yorker After Nina confides a dark secret, one seemingly trivial occurrence leads to events that could destroy Nina’s family in this “arresting” novel by the author of the New York Times–bestselling Neapolitan Novels, which have sold millions of copies and been adapted into an HBO series ( Publishers Weekly). But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her. Enjoying an unexpected sense of liberty, she heads to the Ionian coast for a vacation. Leda, a middle-aged divorcée, is alone for the first time in years after her two adult daughters leave home to live with their father in Toronto. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Paul Mescal, and Peter Sarsgaard Another penetrating Neapolitan story from New York Times best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lying Life of Adults
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