Cannonball Read #07: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzén

I started reading this monster of a book over a month ago. I read through it reluctantly, slowly, frequently casting lusty glances at the rest of books I'd bought for Cannonball Read. Easy books. Fun books. Books about my greatest passion, running, that I could probably read in one sitting.

My first impression, a page into ”The Corrections”, was that, yes! This is how you're supposed to write. Adjectives, metaphors, strong characters, Franzéns writing style is impeccable. But as I read on, my motivation to continue waned. The book felt more like a study in linguistics, self-conscious and extreme in its eloquence, and less like a novel. The plot jumped from one character to another, one awkward situation to the next, and I had difficulty keeping up. Where was this going? And did it always need to be so wordy? What had impressed me so much at first was becoming tiresome. Fast.

As secondary characters not only got introduced but got sub plots that spanned several pages, Franzén lost me for paragraphs at a time, and I glazed over these detailed descriptions that had made such a great first impression. It would be unfair to blame my lack of interest solely on the book; I was going through a period when my motivation to read was low. Or maybe it was the book itself that left me drained of inspiration. Yet I kept reading, a couple of pages at a time, resenting the book for being so long and myself for being too stubborn to give it up, until a few hours' reading marathon earlier today finally brought the book to a satisfying and unexpectedly exciting conclusion.

Would I have liked the book more if I'd been more in the mood for reading? Maybe. After all, there were plenty of interesting themes in it: Alfred's downward spiral, Denise's journey towards self-awareness, Gary's desperate attempts to gain control over something. But the book could have benefited from some aggressive editing that would have cut down the number of pages by, say, 200. Unfortunately, what will stay with me after having finished ”The Corrections” will not be the brilliant writing style. It will be how long it was.