The retired patriarch, Alfred, spent his life working honorably and stoically for the Midland Pacific railroad, but in the 21st century his values retain the currency of those powerful trains now sold for scrap or sitting in transportation museums. The Lamberts are a Norman Rockwell portrait in acidic hues. Though it runs to almost 600 pages, I'm stunned by how much Franzen manages to cover and how compelling the story remains throughout. The book is wildly brilliant, funny, and wise, a rich feast of cultural analysis. Under this torrent of hype, I tried to dislike "The Corrections," but it's no use. If you haven't already heard how great the novel is, you're hopelessly out of the loop.) (Last week, The New York Times ran three adoring features about the book, and The New Yorker published an essay by Franzen about his father's illness – the inspiration for this story. This omnivorous comedy about a Midwestern family dealing with chronic dysfunctions radiates the kind of dark insight that the priests of serious fiction worship. The Corrections represents a giant leap for Jonathan Franzen – not only beyond his previous two novels, but beyond just about anybody else's.
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