(Current fiction and quality fiction of the past.)
The novel “Freedom” (Farr, Straus & Giroux) by Jonathan Franzen that Examiner pretty much canned on Aug. 17 (Examiner) has been selected by Oprah Winfrey for her book club.
Looking back, among the pomp and circumstance which touted “Freedom” was this by veteran critic Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times: “a novel that turns out to be both a compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times.”
The Examiner quoted from the novel: “. . . in Merrie's opinion, if you were to scratch below the nicey-nice surface you might be surprised to find something rather hard and selfish and competitive and Reaganite in Patty; it was obvious that the only things that mattered to her were her children and her house - not her neighbors, not the poor, not her country, not her parents, not even her own husband.” – Copyright © 2010 by Jonathan Franzen
Examiner sticks by its appraisal of Aug. 17, Oprah Winfrey not withstanding:
Yes, an indelible portrait of our times. But the lasting taste of contemporary literature need not be bile, though the time in which one lives be distasteful. Examiner, in currently re-reading William Faulkner’s “Light in August” revels in the simplicity of the rhythm of his language – “. . . thinking as he had thought before and would think again and as every other man thought: how false the most profound book turns out to be when applied to life.”
Whether an indelible portrait of our times comes from Jonathan Franzen, Thomas Pynchon or Roberto Bolaño, it’s the quality of the writing that counts, the use of language and its magical rhythms. In which case, Franzen finishes a very long-distant third in the three named, reminding us of Janis Joplin singing "Me and Bobby McGee" – where “Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.”
Examiner submits that Jonathan Franzen’s writing rings far from literary and sounds closer to journalism. In response to a Publishers Weekly survey, Michael Downey wrote something close to Examiner’s opinion: “I’m afraid this is definitely not my sort of book. One corner of my mouth has turned upward a couple of times, but otherwise I find it fairly boring and a little tedious. His writing is distant from events, rather than immediate, like a journalist much more so than a novelist. To me, for journalists to call a book like this “important” while ignoring a great many others is nothing but pretension–a sort of tyranny of taste, or the manifestation of an elitism–the type of people saying the book is important being the type of people he is writing about–or, perhaps, the insularity of mistaking one’s own social stratum as being wholly indicative of America itself. Mr. Franzen is a skilled writer, but he does not write the sort of book I find engaging. I believe I am abandoning this one.” – Copyright © Publishers Weekly
Alas, there’s a contemporary view of our times much better expressed than the “Freedom” story: "So everything lets us down, including curiosity and honesty and what we love best. Yes, said the voice, but cheer up, its fun in the end."
— Roberto Bolaño (2666)
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