The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen · 2001
Buy on AmazonLike bookends of the past half century, the two generations of the Lambert family represent two very different aspects of America. Alfred, the patriarch, is a distant, puritanical company man; he is also slipping into Parkinson's-induced dementia. His wife, Enid, is a model Midwestern housewife, at once deferential and controlling. Their three children--Gary, an uptight banker, baffled by his own persistent unhappiness; Chip, and ex-professor now failing as a screenwriter; and Denise, and up-and-coming chief in a hot new restaurant--have little time for Enid and Alfred. But when Enid calls for one last Christmas at the family home, the trajectories of five American lifetimes converge.…
Recommended by
The Atlantic's The Great American Novels · theatlantic.com
"Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections." The great ones seem to know that humanity is exhibited in many different colors and stripes."
By the Book: Jeffrey Tambor · nytimes.com
"The book saw into my soul. It was the novel-length rant I would have composed about my family if only I hadn't been so busy practicing the piano!"
By the Book: Jeremy Denk · nytimes.com
""The Corrections." When it was published, I'd been out of college for 15 years, but was still an English major at heart. A guy my age had just written something as complex and weighty as a classic? Plus, it was loose, nutty and hilarious?"
By the Book: Maria Semple · nytimes.com
"I laughed out loud reading Jonathan Franzen’s “Corrections”"
By the Book: Sarah Ruhl · nytimes.com