I came to this memoir because the description hints at Franzen's experiences with a Christian youth group in the 70s, and I can report that, YES, you can find the source material for Crossroads right here! First published in 2006 (so between The Corrections and Freedom), there's a strong theme of religion going through the whole text. Starting with 40ish Franzen trying to sell his mother's house after her passing, we get a kaleidoscope of stories from the past that illuminate how the author beca...

I spent the weekend at the beach, but I thought I might wind up enjoying something, so I brought along the gloomiest Gus in town, Jonathan Franzen.Here's the thing. Franzen is the only mainstream American culture (he's been on Oprah and the cover of Time, and as far as I'm concerned that puts him at Miley Cyrus levels of mainstream for the middle-aged, -class, and-Western) who actually spits venom at the system. I appreciate this.Here he unleashes his rage against himself and his various insecur...

There's an old philosophical joke that, in one of its many forms**, runs: "There are two kinds of people in the world—those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don't". In that spirit, I'd like to propose a corollary, as regards the biographies of writers: there are two kinds of writers, (i) those who meticulously curate their biographies (so as to attempt to shepherd or police future interpretations of their life and work, as with the late Philip Roth, say, by app...

In which I tell Jonathan Franzen to stop trying to distract me with goddamned ducks, dammit:(Why not call it essays? Or a memoir? Because Franzen is at pains to show you what a cool cat he is, that’s why.) Franzen’s a different animal here, is all I can say—or, perhaps more aptly: I come to strange realizations about the big grump I’ve always loved. I was drawn to The Discomfort Zone because he can be so incisive about his family [see his other essays in How to Be Alone and in Farther Away, whic...

A Mixed BagI believe Jonathan Franzen fans will be both delighted and disappointed with this collection, The Discomfort Zone. It starts out very strong, showing off Franzen's remarkable vocabulary, storytelling ability, and his disregard for political-correctness. In a piece called, "House for Sale," Franzen tells what it feels like to take on the chore of emptying and selling what was his childhood home. Anyone who has faced the death of a parent and has undergone this emotional task will relat...

Unless you are an employee of the New York Times, it has become uncool to admit to liking Jonathan Franzen.I don't know when Franzen's innate un-hipness became official. Was it when he announced his mixed feelings about his work being included in Oprah's book club? Was it when he wrote his essay on Edith Wharton--an article that would go on to become perhaps the most misunderstood piece of nonfiction in the last 10 years? Was it when he started bashing Kindles and Twitter? Was it, perhaps, when

I am perplexed by the New York Times reviewers’ antipathy to this book. I have always found Franzen to be a captivating essayist, and Discomfort Zone is no exception. Most distressing to his critics, it seems, is Discomfort Zone’s abundant narcissism--but I found the essays to be a reflection on youthful egotism from a mature and contrite remove. To the Times reviewers, Franzen’s description of his family is sterile and unloving. His “disarming, sometimes misguided candor,” seems instead, to me,...

I enjoyed some of the stories of him as a kid, especially the Christian stuff, less so his school exploits. However, I am not a fan of writer-as-hero books with context, and other characters, left fuzzy, and so I found the book mostly pretty tedious.

I read the New York Times’ review of The Discomfort Zone earlier today. The Times’ conclusion after reading was that Jonathan Franzen is hopelessly self-absorbed. I don’t disagree, but I don’t think that’s such a terrible thing. We’re all self-absorbed and at least Franzen had the good sense to use it for comedy.Anyways, onward with my review…I enjoyed learning more about Franzen as a person. I liked seeing how his personal experiences (fascination with birds, environmentalism, strange relations...

Franzen trying to dissect his own existence isn't quite as thrilling as Franzen dissecting the existence of the characters in his novels, but this definitely has its moments, and unlike so many memoir-ish books, this has no interest in romanticizing anything from out of the past, in fact when it works well, it does so because it reminds you that a mid-western, middle class upbringing (I'm telegraphing myself into this now) is usually just full of a lot of petty little triumphs and disappointment...

Franzen is a good writer, but leaves you with that nagging feeling that you wouldn't like him if you met him. He's awfully self-absorbed. Still, I really enjoyed this dream he relates - and he seems to be aware there's much truth in it:“...I had a nightmare about the Averys’ sweet-tempered German shepherd, Ina. In the dream, as I was sitting on the floor in the Averys’ living room, the dog walked up to me and began to insult me. She said I was a frivolous, cynical, attention-seeking “fag” whose

Jonathan Franzen has come home to St Louis to get his parent's house ready to sell after the death of his mother. While he is waiting for it to sell he reflects on the significant moments of his life with particular emphasis on his childhood. The language in the book is beautiful and it is well constructed but for me, the characters were flat and uninteresting. For someone who has had such a rich and varied life and writes so well I think he could have come up with more interesting things to tal...

The start is very strong. Author uses his remarkable vocabulary, storytelling ability, and his disregard for political-correctness. The book is divided in five chapters and in first Franzen describes in detail how he chose the wrong realtor to sell his mother's house.I believe he uses this start as an introduction where tries to bring a reader closer to his continual disappointment over strict, provincial parents and how mother's opinions have deeply influenced his life. Franzen reflects back to...

All my books nowadays come from the English section of the library in Oslo, so a smaller selection than I've ever experienced. I chose this book only for it's title. And I knew I'd heard of Franzen, but couldn't remember what. The book travels through time while the main character, who seems to be Franzen himself,remembers his childhood, his teenage years, young adulthood, adulthood when his mother died, his divorce, his subsequent relationship and eventual immersion in bird watching as a hobby....

I've only recently become aware that Jonathan Franzen exists, so when I saw this book at my local bookstore for the price of a meagre 3 euros, I sort of had to buy it. Tbh, I wouldn't have minded paying a bit more now that I've read it.It's a great book all in all. Franzen gives us a relatable look at his early life; he explores and portrays the Franzen family dynamics, proclaims his love for the Peanuts (esp. Snoopy), recalls his boyhood antics, talks about his non-existent sex life as a young

Enjoyed it even though I didn't know the author beforehand, which is the mark of a good bio.

I am trying to inject more nonfiction into my reading life by reading essays in between novels. I am making my way through Franzen’s nonfiction which I’ve found to be almost universally excellent. One the whole, arguably better than his fiction (which I also love). This book is more narrative-based than I expected. The essays are essentially mini-memoirs from different parts of his life from childhood to his first marriage. His other essay collections are generally Franzen’s appraisals and refle...

I like the parallels in this essay/memoir. I read it mostly to get and idea of what the author was like first hand. Being "that guy" I hate fan-boying regardless of how much fun it is – I enjoyed the voyeuristic aspects and connections I made to the works of his I have read. He bounces around a lot and that's ok, it's his book. Bird watching isn't something I have thought about in such depth, mind you, I do take time during the day to "watch the birds" if one or more flit buy, or land in my path...

Horribly depressing. Well-written, though.

A delight, especially for those who grew up in the sixties and early seventies. And especially if you grew up in Webster Groves. Many stories about places and people you knew. Second half, his life as an adult, was less interesting to me. Still, it makes me want to read his other more famous books.

I've been reading far too many memoirs and autobiographies for someone who's on record as hating them. For this one, my specific aim was to establish if an anonymous inquirer was right in believing me to have been too generous in my review of The Corrections. Regrettably, I was unable to answer this question with certainty, The Discomfort Zone not being a straightforward autobiography or memoir so much as an elaborate attempt on Franzen's part of proving himself not to be the most boring person

I read a few of the reviews of "A Personal History" before writing and saw all the protesting that he didn't just say memoir, or, essays; my suggestion for a title, for at least the first three stories, is "The Roast of Jonathan Franzen, a Roast, by Jonathan Franzen." "Jonathan Franzen seems like the kinda guy who's mom wouldn't let him wear jeans in high school. Jonathan Franzen seems like the kinda nerd guy who tried to build a physics planned catapult unsuccessfully for a school prank in high...

There really wasn't any reason for me to read Franzen. His settings tend towards suburban America like the plague. And I normally I avoid suburban America. But a friend wanted me to read and review it. So I picked it up, read it, liked it, and predictably I'm uncomfortable about the fact that I did.There is so much hear that resonates with my own life, and I suspect, the lives of many who were raised the Hollywood-driven global culture. Awkward-but-still-close family ties, the thousand faux pas-...

Last week I was reading Andrei Codrescu's Involuntary Genius at home and listening to Franzen's Discomfort Zone at work. There isn't a doubt in my mind that Codrescu has lead the better life. It kills me that it's Franzen I can relate to. Why, why, why does my heart sink into my stomach when I'm faced with the brands of soy milk that I never buy? Why do I make a ceremony of apologizing to things before throwing them away? Where does this guilt come from? It has to be our least useful emotion. Do...

I love his fiction, but hot damn this one was a tedious read. Some moments of brilliance, but for the most part this was self-satisfied self-indulgence that felt oh so clever. I'll stick to Franzen's fiction.

I firmly believe that every examined life can be interesting...Franzen seems determined to believe that, upon examination, his middle-class midwestern upbringing is dull as balls. And I'm sad to say that he made me believe that too. Skip.

If you want to read six pages of what comics (and which local newspapers carried them) an author enjoyed as a kid, this book is for you.

This collection of six personal essays about Franzen's life opens with a very funny one describing the selling of his deceased parents' house, and closes with one that talks about his mother's last days. The middle four are about his adolescent schooldays, and in a sense they are preliminaries to the first and last essays. Franzen writes in the fourth esaay, "Adolescence is best enjoyed without self-consciousness, but self-consciousness, unfortunately, is its leading symptom. Even when something...

“Adolescence is best enjoyed without self-consciousness, but self-consciousness, unfortunately, is its leading symptom. Even when something important happens to you, even when your heart's getting crushed or exalted, even when you're absorbed in building the foundations of a personality, there come these moments when you're aware that what's happening is not the real story. Unless you actually die, the real story is still ahead of you.”––––––In THE DISCOMFORT ZONE, Jonathan Franzen breaks down h...

Troublemaking prankster with a conscience. Case in point- teenaged Franzen, along with his buddies, emptied 30 (!!!) classrooms of their desks and packed all of them in a single classroom from floor to ceiling, yet he insisted on labeling the desks with masking tape and markers before moving the desks, so they could be put back in the correct rooms. One amusing little anecdote was the thermostat battle between his dad and mom and Franzen’s realization that his parents were cartoonish in the ridi...