The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen, Àlex Gombau · first published 2001
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Vivid, powerful scenes, including chapters seen through a man with dementia, and a sharp portrait of a dysfunctional middle-class family; suits readers who enjoy realist family novels with real emotional weight.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Like bookends of the past half century, the two generations of the Lambert family represent two very different aspects of America. Alfred, the patriarch, is a distant, puritanical company man; he is also slipping into Parkinson's-induced dementia. His wife, Enid, is a model Midwestern housewife, at once deferential and controlling. Their three children--Gary, an uptight banker, baffled by his own persistent unhappiness; Chip, and ex-professor now failing as a screenwriter; and Denise, and up-and-coming chief in a hot new restaurant--have little time for Enid and Alfred. But when Enid calls for
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and A Spot of Bother both by Mark Haddon The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
on “Ask HN: What is the best fiction book you've ever read? ” ↗Go buy a good novel. Here's some random picks for you: The road by Cormack McCarthy (a real page turner), The New York trilogy by Paul Auster, Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, The stranger by Albert Camus.
on “Ask HN: Help, I'm stuck on HN” ↗The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen It was the first/only book that put into words feelings I've had for my entire teenage-->adult life around the complexities of a dysfunctional middle class family.
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗…Eliot Brothers Karamazov, or Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky Madame Bovary by Flaubert, or Bel-Ami by Maupassant The Book of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen The Corrections by Franzen Recognitions by Gaddis Foster by Claire Keegan (short but incredible) (That's a personal list, and by no means exhaustive, just some recommendations.)
on “Ask HN: Books that helped you become a better person?” ↗- Underworld, Don Delilo - A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James - NW, Zadie Smith - The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen Multiple narrators, sweeping plot, not always easy to follow, not too postmodern.
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗Jonathan Franzen's book, The Corrections, contains some very vivid scenes & chapters through the eyes of a man suffering from dementia -- I can't speak to their accuracy, but they are very powerful.
on “Ether One: The Video Game That Tries to Simulate Dementia” ↗…do you mean exactly? Long, complex sentence? FWIW I don't think this is a particularly good one. But if you like this writing style, Jonathan Franzen does it quite a bit, and really well. Check out The Corrections. From a snarky perspective, n+1 is a "postmodern" type magazine that caters to theorists, critics; the types who attempt to convey abstract meaning (words are just endless signifiers, after-all!) while…
on “Devil’s Haircut” ↗The Complete Stories (of) Franz Kafka, The Corrections by Jonathen Franzen
on “Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?” ↗If you read Franzen's novels, The Corrections first, then Freedom, you really get a good sense of how he changed. They are decent reads.
on “Jonathan Franzen: what's wrong with the modern world” ↗Considering Wallace and Franzen were friends, and Franzen's the Corrections appears to have been published about 5 years after this article, I enjoy thinking that the article influenced the book.
on “Hammocks Make Sleep Easier, Deeper” ↗Slightly off topic, but I think some version of this idea appears in Jonathan Franzen's `The Corrections` - it's the startup that makes Brian's millions and allows him to fund The Generator?
on “Eigentechno – Applying Principal Component Analysis to electronic music loops” ↗