Jonathan Franzen
Author of The Corrections
About the Author
Jonathan Franzen was born in Western Springs, Illinois on August 17, 1959. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1981, and went on to study at the Freie University in Berlin as a Fulbright scholar. He worked in a seismology lab at Harvard University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences show more after graduation. His works include The Twenty-Seventh City (1988), Strong Motion (1992), How to Be Alone (2002), and The Discomfort Zone (2006). The Corrections (2001) won a National Book Award and the 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Freedom (2010) is an Oprah Book Club selection. He also won a Whiting Writers' Award in 1988 and the American Academy's Berlin Prize in 2000. He is also a frequent contributor to Harper's and The New Yorker. In 2015 his title Purity made The New Yort Times and New Zealand Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Jonathan Franzen Fotograaf: Greg Martin
Series
Works by Jonathan Franzen
Selected Essays from: How to be Alone 10 copies
The Republic of Bad Taste 3 copies
Why Birds Matter 2 copies
How He Came to Be Somewhere 2 copies
Sample of Freedom 1 copy
The Failure. Stories from The Corrections: Das Hörbuch zum Sprachen lernen mit ausgewählten Kurzgeschichten.… (2005) 1 copy
2006 1 copy
Associated Works
The Short End of the Sonnenallee (1995) — Introduction, Translator, some editions — 313 copies, 13 reviews
Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process (2017) — Contributor — 146 copies, 4 reviews
Know the Past, Find the Future: The New York Public Library at 100 (2011) — Contributor — 120 copies, 3 reviews
Bringing Back the Birds: Exploring Migration and Preserving Birdscapes throughout the Americas (2019) — Foreword — 24 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Franzen, Jonathan Earl
- Birthdate
- 1959-08-17
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Western Springs, Illinois, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Chicago, Illinois, USA
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Berlin, Germany
Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Boulder Creek, California, USA - Education
- Wayne State University (1979)
Swarthmore College (BA | 1981 | German)
Freie Universität Berlin (1981) - Occupations
- writer
novelist
essayist - Relationships
- Wallace, David Foster (friend)
- Awards and honors
- Whiting Writers' Award (1988)
Granta's Best Of Young American Novelists (1996)
Fulbright Scholarship (1981)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (2012)
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2012)
Akademie der Kunste (2010) - Short biography
- 1959 in Western Springs / Illinois geboren, wuchs in einer Vorstadt von St. Louis auf. 1988 veröffentlichte er den Roman "The Twenty-Seventh City", 1992 "Strong Motion". Für seinen dritten Roman und sensationellen Erfolg "The Corrections" erhielt er 2001 den National Book Award verliehen. Schon vorher hat ihn die Zeitschrift The New Yorker unter die "Twenty Writers for the 21st Century" gerechnet. Jonathan Franzen lebt in New York.
Members
Discussions
Jonathan Franzen's latest, PURITY--will you read it and is he really "America's best novelist"? in Literary Snobs (September 2015)
June 2013: The Twenty-Seventh City in Missouri Readers (July 2013)
1001 April Group Read: [The Corrections] in 1001 Books to read before you die (May 2012)
Reviews
Franzen's description of dysfunction just didn't hold true for me, and I know dysfunction.
Yawn.
This happens every time when I read Jonathan Franzen. Halfway through, I literally stop caring about all of the characters. Even if I have 300 pages invested, I give up! (and I don't give up easily on books..)
This happens every time when I read Jonathan Franzen. Halfway through, I literally stop caring about all of the characters. Even if I have 300 pages invested, I give up! (and I don't give up easily on books..)
Lists
A Novel Cure (2)
100 New Classics (1)
Secrets Books (1)
Family Drama (1)
Unread books (1)
Five star books (1)
Our digital age (1)
Test (1)
2000s decade (1)
My TBR (2)
Midwestern Books (1)
Obama Reads (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 30
- Also by
- 26
- Members
- 37,974
- Popularity
- #475
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 1,024
- ISBNs
- 604
- Languages
- 27
- Favorited
- 105
"The Lamberts - Enid and Alred and their three grown up children are a Troubled( with a Capital T) family living in a troubled age. Alfred is slowly losing his mind to parkinson's disease. As his condition worsens and the Lamberts are forced to face the secrets and failures that haunt them. Enid sets her heart on gathering her family together for one last christmas.
While the characters in this novel are by no means likable they are interesting well developed.
The prose is a little over the top by times and you get the feeling the author is showing off his litercy skills but having said that there are some very well written and moving moments in the book.
One sentence that really stood out for me was;
"When had it happened that his parents had become the children who went to bed early and called down for help from the top of the stairs, when had this happened?.
I did however find this book way too long and think it really could have said all it needed to say in about 450 pages. I found it a little strange that the Lambert family had no happy moments in any of their lives.
While I did enjoy the read and not sure I would recommend it as it really is a book that some will love and others will hate. Would have rated it 3.5 stars if I could.… (more)