Genre: Book
Grade: A-
Notable People: Jonathan Franzen
Title: Freedom
Review: Franzen has won the National book award for his previous novel, so I was quite eager…but then the book was so very slow to start, I almost gave up. But stuck with it, and it turned out to be a fine read about a 30-year marriage between two iconoclasts. Sweeping story from St. Paul, to the coal mining hollers of West Virginia, to power environmentalists in DC, and a fading 70s rock star in Jersey City. The novel is dense, so read in short segments, which made the lengthy novel go a long way during the Pandemic. The characters really came to life for me as the book progressed. Franzen had a keen eye for detail, language and context…. ugly turns sweet in this book.