Freedom: A Novel / by Jonathan Franzen

St. Louis native Jonathan Franzen attended Swarthmore College and was a Fulbright Scholar priveleged enough to study in Germany. He's stuck close to his midwestern roots as an author though, setting many of his stories and characters places like Minnesota or Wisconsin and highlighting many of the themes inherent of the region. In addition to writing novels, he’s been a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and Harper’s where his talent as an essayist is well-known. His 2001 novel The Corrections won the National Book Award and became an Oprah’s Book Club selection despite Franzen’s personal opposition to the choice; he felt the ‘Oprah’s’ tag might designate the book for a predominately female audience whereas he'd personally hoped to reach more male readers. Freedom, his first novel since The Corrections, observes a family of progressive-minded Midwesterners through the latter decades of the twentieth century up until the most recent presidential election.
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The Berglunds of St. Paul, MN like to see themselves as making a difference. The liberal-minded couple, Walter and Patty, and their two children Jessica and Joey, are one of the first families to move back into the city from the suburbs, intent on renovating their “project” of a house and spearheading other urban renewal initiatives. From the neighbors’ perspective, the Berglunds are alright. Patty is the energetic mom, Walter is the level-headed lawyer promoting environmentalist causes, Jessica likes school and Joey, well, Joey likes his independence. From early on, Joey demonstrates his desire to do things his own way and with time develops severe rebellious streak, one which ironically fits well with his intense relationship with Connie Monaghan. Connie, the single-parent girl from down the street, starts a romance with Joey which sparks a rift between Joey and his parents. Tension escalates to an alarming level within the Berglund household and with their neighbors, so much so that Walter and Patty decide to relocate to Washington, D.C., a move forging a bitter physical and emotional rift with their son Joey.
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This period allows Patty to take into account her life up until now. Transcribing her autobiography at the request of her therapist, Patty pens down the events leading to the current situation and how the child she once was grew and changed into the woman she is now. In her youth Patty had been quite the athlete, a basketball star in high school seemingly destined for greatness. Breaking the mold of her more un-athletic, artistic minded family who want her to follow a more mapped-out Ivy League path, Patty attended the local state school on scholarship where she first met the hunky and ecologically consicious Richard Katz. A soulful musician with a passionate desire to help the environment, Richard became the object of Patty’s affection, increasingly more so when a knee injury ended her basketball career. The feeling wasn’t quite mutual though and a devastated Patty turned to Richard’s nerdy but available roommate Walter who ultimately became her husband. Walter, the man she thinks she still loves, has been a good provider and a loving father. But it all changes when Richard Katz reenters their lives and the drama of the Berglunds takes on a wholly different twist.
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Reminiscent of Updike with his thoroughly realist take on the American family and yet innovative in his approach to life in the contemporary sphere, Franzen has an adroitness about his writing which distinguishes him from other, similar writers. At times funny, lighthearted and satirical while at others dour, cynical and even morbid, Freedom introduces an archetype which is unlike any other in fiction. Here we have family in the modern generation with characters who've never really lacked for anything but aren't overly spoiled or inordinately warped, just unsure of themselves and their limitations. The Corrections was like this: a similar snapshot of nuclear family dynamics in the modern era where an overabundance of choices tends to cause problems. Characters have imbedded in them seemingly unbreakable convictions and yet aren't invulnerable to rash decisions and drastic changes of heart (Patty's marrying Walter, the Berglunds moving on a whim from the house they'd worked so hard on, Joey's switches in loyalty, etc.). It befits the title with its distinction of 'freedom', meant to connote the freedom felt within individual identity rather than the non-committal free-to-do-whatever mentality. (FIC FRANZEN)