Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Well, I admit it....I couldn't put this book down. I once took some French classes at Grand Valley. I remember the teacher (himself a Frenchman) his telling our class that Moliere's novels were most highly praised and admired by the very classes and people that Moliere satirized. Corrections probably fits in that category of novel. I loved the characterizations, the wit, the skewering of almost everything in modern popular culture.

There is a father / husband named Walter who is a dear, sweet and lovely man, his wife Patty, their kids Joey and Jessica and dozens of other characters who are connected to these four people. Franzen touches on many, many aspects of American society, mostly not very kindly, but always with clarity of dialogue, with a sharp, often wicked humor, with insight into his various characters but also often with grace. He seems never to struggle for a phrase; his writing appears effortless. While some could and probably did dismiss this novel, I found it compelling for its message about the finite resources we are rapidly using up but also for the dozens of vignettes about what is happening in and to the United States and how freedom just may be "another word for nothing left to lose."