Ratings124
Average rating3.8
One family’s chaotic journey through life, love, and an unforgettable holiday reunion
After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson’s disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives.
The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself that, despite certain alarming indicators, he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man―or so her mother fears.
Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
Reviews with the most likes.
Franzen's description of dysfunction just didn't hold true for me, and I know dysfunction.
I read this a million years ago, when it was new, but my ambivalent experience with “Freedom” left me wanting to refresh my memory–am I not a Franzen fan, or just not a “Freedom” fan?
Upon re-reading, it became clear that my problem was “Freedom,” not Franzen (my, isn't this is an alliterative review). “The Corrections” was everything I wanted it to be–zany, painfully precise in its portraits of the characters (I swear I will stop with the alliteration), but compassionate towards all their inelegant fumblings.
Anyway, who doesn't love a good family drama (said the psychologist)?
A searing look at family values in America. Along the same lines as American Beauty, but much more masterful in its scope and depth.
She knew she was telling herself lies, but she didn't know which of the things in her head were the lies and which were the truth.
How can you distinguish the people when everybody pretends to be the same?
Stoner
The Corrections
The Corrections
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