First Book Review: Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen

No, I haven't read it. But Publisher's Weekly just came out with their starred review of Jonathan Franzen's new novel Freedom, which won't be out until the last day of August. The Corrections has built up such a reputation by fans of Franzen's fiction that it seems almost impossible that another Franzen novel will live up expectations, but, as PW says: ..."the first question facing Franzen’s feverishly awaited follow-up is whether it can find its own voice in its predecessor’s shadow. In short: yes, it does, and in a big way." 

Still, another novel about a family...hasn't he already covered this ground? It's like seeing movie remade by the same director originally released only ten years earlier. But, as PW goes on to say, "Franzen pits his excavation of the cracks in the nuclear family’s facade against a backdrop of all-American faults and fissures, but where the book stands apart is that, no longer content merely to record the breakdown, Franzen tries to account for his often stridently unlikable characters and find where they (and we) went wrong, arriving at—incredibly—genuine hope."

Sounds good, I'll give you that. And Liz is interested in reading it as well. Way interested. So this all to say that a copy of Freedom will be gracing our shelves by the end of the summer.

There is a lot of anticipation in the publishing/book seller world for this book. UK trade magazine The Bookseller says Freedom is the "one to watch" this September. "This is probably the most eagerly awaited literary novel this autumn." UK's The Guardian says, "Bookshops pin hopes on Jonathan Franzen's return with Freedom."