Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

OK, first a little housekeeping:  I'm behind.  Plain and simple.  Sorry nerds.  I have about five book reviews to write and publish so expect rapid fire blog posts in the next week or two.  And if you are an author or publisher who has sent me a book to review, rest assured I am getting to you, slowly but surely.  I apologize for the delay.

Now that I have that out of the way, let's get on to the stink fest that is tonight's book selection - Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.  I know what you're thinking.  It's on all the best seller lists!  Every intellectual in America has read it!  But Oprah loved it!  I don't care.  Oprah also loved A Million Little Pieces and we all know how that turned out.  This book sucked.  Bad.  It sucked so bad I've already sold it back to Half Priced Books.  Nothing fucking happens!  Sorry for the language but I'm pissed I wasted any time on it.

Freedom revolves around Patty and Walter Berglund, a typical liberal, yuppie - yet dysfunctional - St. Paul, Minnesota couple and their children, friends and neighbors. The book opens with a short introduction to the family but then jumps around a bit.  There is a section written from Patty's point of view giving some background on her upbringing and college life at the University of Minnesota where she first meets Walter and his roommate, musician Richard Katz.  Then it jumps from chapter chapter, written from different characters points of view - Katz as he gains some notoriety and fame as a musician; Joey, Walter and Patty's strangely opportunistic and overly capitalist son as he embarks on his first year at college; Walter as he embarks on a new career in Washington DC working for a coal company yet has hopes of using their substantial resources to save an endangered tropical bird. 

Apparently it continues from there.  I'm not sure.  I quit after the halfway mark. But let's be clear, that's still quite a long while that I rode this book out.  It's over 500 pages.   I just kept reading and reading and reading thinking eventually something was going to happen but I was wrong.  It's just a bunch of white people with white people problems.  Patty grew up in an East Coast, politically involved family.  She excelled at sports and won a scholarship to the University of MN to play basketball.  But somehow she felt deprived and eventually estranged herself from her family.  Katz struggles as a starving musician for years but shuns success and acclaim once it finally comes his way.  Everything comes easy to Joey, including school, friends, girls and money.  He goes to college in Virginia to get away from his family, yet continues to string along his high school girlfriend because he still craves the satisfaction of being superior to someone.

It's just all so very shallow and pathetic.  I'm not saying these characters' problems and challenges aren't significant.  No problem or situation is more significant than to the person who is experiencing it and it's definitely all relative.  But some perspective is healthy.  There are people dying of awful sicknesses, suffering abuse, starving, being oppressed by governments, etc. all over the world.  There are worse things in life than being the black sheep of your family.  I'm just sayin'...

I'm giving Freedom only one bow. 

I hated it.  If that makes me a non-intellectual, then so be it.  I'm OK with it.  I'm sure there are people who will read this review and think that I just didn't get it.  They are probably right and I'm OK with that too.  Maybe they can enlighten me.  I'm open to discussion.  Until next time, fellow book nerds, happy reading!