"The Corrections" wins Natl. Book Award

[Sierra Disc]

Anyone read it? My wife had an advance copy from the bookstore she works in so I had a chance to read it. It's pretty good but it's one of those cases where it's also a little overhyped –*your fairly standard dysfunctional family drama/comedy livened up by some very nice writing. It's nothing that Updike, Tyler or John Irving haven't done before, at least in my reading. But it's well worth a read, although I'd wait for a paperback rather than shelling out for the hardcover. Curious if anyone else around here has checked this out.

(As for the whole ridiculous "Oprah" thing with this book, I'll only note that Franzen really did make an idiot of himself with that whole deal –*but it doesn't affect the quality of his work. [Although it's pretty elitist of him to decide that Oprah's audience aren't the 'kind of people' he wants reading his fiction])

[Funk]

I read it. I wasn't blown away, but there were parts that I certainly enjoyed. There's alot there, and I'm sure I missed some of the finer points.

I also don't think they were a dysfunctional family. Maybe they had some disfunctions, but doesn't every family?

[Frank TJ Mackey]

I can't believe I couldn't find a thread on
The Corrections.

It's all I've heard about for months.

I was about to buy it but I wanted to hear some opinions
on it first.

Has anyone read it??
Is it edgy material? What age would be appropriate to read this one.

thanks

[Sierra Disc]

Took me a while to find this thread, but here it is for Frank TJ Mackey---

[Blade]

Originally posted by Sierra Disc
Took me a while to find this thread, but here it is for Frank TJ Mackey---

Merged his and this thread together.

[msbailey]

You know, I just finished this book and was completely underwhelmed. It's well written, but it doesn't really stand apart from much other contemporary fiction. If you want to read something contemporary and sprawling, read Kavalier & Clay or Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. If you want to read something contemporary about family relations, read Atonement.

[Snapperhead]

I just finished this as well. It was a decent read, but tedious at times. Just couldn't get that personal connection with most of the characters.

This was just one of those books where there was soooo much hype that I had to read just to check it out.

Glad to see other so-so reviews here. I thought I was completely missing something amazing that the author was conveying.

Interested in reading other opinions....

[Caoimhin]

It did very little for me. I like to think of characters in a book as people I meet on the street. I have to find them interesting enough to want to know more about them and in this case, I didn't. I don't have to like characters, but I do have to have enough invested in them emotionally to care what happens, good or bad. I thought the prose was solid and well-written, but the characters and relationships broke no new ground and did nothing for me.

I also thought the section on the ship was jarring, horrible and stylistically unlike everything else in the book. It seemed as though someone else wrote that portion without having read any of the rest of it.