The Corrections

An elderly Midwestern woman, watching her husband slide into the fog of Parkinson's and dementia, becomes fixated on gathering her three scattered, unhappy adult children home for one last real family Christmas, and the novel fans out to follow each of them, an anxious academic, a disgraced chef, a corrupt investment banker, through the private failures, delusions, and quiet desperations of their contemporary American lives. Franzen writes an ambitious, darkly comic, deeply detailed social novel that dissects a single family to illuminate a whole culture of consumerism, medication, ambition, and self-deception at the turn of the millennium, moving among the characters with merciless insight and sprawling set pieces. The prose is dense and the observation acid, the sympathy real beneath the satire. This suits readers who want a big, ambitious, intelligent literary novel about family dysfunction and modern American life, and who enjoy sharp social observation and psychological depth. It fits less well anyone wanting a fast plot, likable characters, or brevity, since the book is long, discursive, and its people often unpleasant. The detail that the aging mother's desperate wish for one final family Christmas frames a sweeping anatomy of a family and an era gives the book its unifying thread. Ambitious, acerbic, and insightful, it rewards patient readers. Those wanting warmth or momentum may find it cold and long, but its unsparing dissection of family and culture is exactly what makes it a landmark.

Best for readers who want their assumptions challenged: books that raise questions without easy answers. This is a book that asks something of you. Dense, layered, and best read slowly. It takes its time, and that's the point. Patience is rewarded. If you want clear answers and a satisfying resolution, look elsewhere.