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Franzen’s second collection of non-fic trimmings is as strong as his first, albeit slacking on the long luscious literary essays that made How To Be Alone such a public event (remember, there were STREET PARTIES when that beast was published!), and too ornithological for five-star status. One man’s birdwatching is another man’s trainspotting and Franzen fills almost 90pp with enormous pieces on crested tits and other porn-flappers. Jeez. Otherwise, ‘On Autobiographical Fiction’ is a brilliant ri...
Here is a story about Jonathan Franzen: I read The Corrections several years ago, perhaps just after it was at its zeitgeistiest. Yes that's a word. What are you looking at.Anyway, I remembered really liking it, and several years later when I found myself contemplating a fairly limited audiobook selection at my parents' home library, I checked out an audio version of the Corrections and listened to most of it on a trip. It was not as good as I remembered it being, but I thought, well maybe now m...
This brilliant essay collection is worth the price of admission just for the first piece, “Pain Won’t Kill You” (his 2011 commencement address at Kenyon College), which is, bluntly put, about the difference between the throwaway Facebook ‘like’ and truly falling in love with someone or something. He uses the personal example of birdwatching: “it’s very uncool to be a birdwatcher, because anything that betrays real passion is by definition uncool.”Yet discovering that enthusiasm for birds taught
Franzen's first essay dissects modern technology/internet trends, in particular FaceBook's (and now others') 'Like' feature. He pulls apart the desire to be likeable, and the need to be real, contrasting having many 'likes' to being genuine.Kinda hits home as I write a review in the hopes that I will receive many 'helps'.I don't typically find reading challenging in this way, which sums up Franzen's brilliance. While his topics vary to the point of mania, sharp intellect, and what I can only des...
SECOND READING (APRIL 2018): 3 STARSListened to the audiobook on my commute to and from work this week. It still strikes me as very much a mixed bag--"I Just Called to Say I Love You" especially is a very profound and moving meditation on technology and our interpersonal relationships, and the Christina Stead essay is very good as well. Otherwise, meh.FIRST READING (MARCH 2014): 3 STARSLike a lot of other people on this site, I struggled to find interest in the essays on birding.Franzen has gain...
This latest collection of essays by Jonathan Franzen is necessarily uneven. His literary criticism continues to be compelling and enthusiastic, his social commentary continues to be somewhat infuriatingly self-righteous, and his interest in birds continues to be somewhat eccentrically interesting. What colors this collection more than anything is his rage and sorrow over his dead friend, David Foster Wallace. Wallace is explicitly discussed in several pieces, but his specter looms throughout. Fr...
If the man says, "Read Alice Munro", you go and read Alice Munro.
Most books I read usually elicit a strong reaction from me. By the time I've finished the last page, I have either strongly enjoyed or strongly hated my time with a book. I can then log onto Goodreads and easily put into words what I loved/despised about it.However, my time with Jonathan Franzen's "Farther Away" isn't that easy to sum up. The collection of essays, speeches and book reviews left me flip flopping between captivation and aggravation.Overall, I couldn't connect with Franzen's writin...
This is (for me, anyway) an extremely tough book to review on its own merit. Franzen will always be on my "must read" list (at least his fiction, anyway. He earned that distinction by penning my second favorite book to date: The Corrections.) This collection of "essays", however, is an uneven, avian mishmosh that lacks cohesion, and is at times somewhat boring. The biggest reason why this is so tough to review is that it's impossible not to compare this with the incomparable essayist/novelist, t...
Originally published in Time Out New YorkIn his latest collection of essays, Jonathan Franzen reiterates his well-documented love of birds and mourns his late friend, the literary heavyweight David Foster Wallace. Much of the better material here has been previously published. Taken together, however, these writings present a broader, more freewheeling curiosity than the novelist generally indulges in his fiction.A kitschy gift provokes a cautionary tale on sustainability and emerging economies
Few contemporary American writers are as good at ridiculing contemporary America as Jonathan Franzen is. He has next to no sympathy for the numerous manifestations of our popular culture and how they almost inevitably leave us feeling empty, unhappy, and less alive as people. And he manages to communicate all of these things in his essays with humor, wit and at times, something approximating compassion. Unfortunately he beats these strengths to death in Farther Away, which is nowhere near as str...
In the years since he refused Oprah Winfrey's invitation to go onto her show to discuss his novel The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has developed (though some might say "earned" or even "sought") a reputation as a crank, or a grouch. What too few of the stories about him take the time to explain is that he is usually cranky for all of the right reasons. This collection contains heartfelt essays, journalism, and speeches that argue that our smartphones reduce intimacy just as much as they increas...
A collection of essays and speeches written in the last five years. It covers various issues which are important to Franzen including the life and suicide of his dear friend David Foster Wallace. It traces the progress of Franzen's unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day.An intimate portrait of Franzen and who'd have thought it? The guy is a devoted bird watcher! I am taking this book slowly, don't want to lose the ess...
It's about books and birds really. I got it cause I heard about the essay on Munro and then just kept going and was surprised over how much more sympathetic Franzen is here then in what little I heard about him in media. I might even try one of his novels after this one.
Like with any collection of essays, some are more enjoyable than others. There are a few slogs and a few throwaways, but at least the more forgettable ones are typically the shoetest. Franzen might hate sentimentality, but he's most appealing when he's delving into more personal topics and when he doesn't get held up on being so grumpy. I definitely prefer his fiction. Looking forward to his next novel, which he's speculated could be his last.
I've loved Franzen fiction and nonfiction writing for a long time now. He's formidably smart, and just bold and edgy enough amidst so many crowd-pleasing writers all around. I loved many pieces in this collection, especially the more personal ones (and there, too, he doesn't hold back!) and some of the book reviews. I do though wish this collection had more coherence, some sort of centre to hold it all together. Instead - as happens too often with famous authors - somebody (probably the publishe...
Jonathan Franzen is a man of specific interests: birds and books. These essays are about various bird watching trips, and specific plays or novels that normal people have never heard of. It's impossible to review Jonathan Franzen's books without venturing an opinion of Franzen himself. This is different than, say, Margaret Atwood. No one reviews a Margaret Atwood novel and devotes half of the allotted word count to an assessment of her merits as an individual. But Franzen, for whatever reasons,