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The Corrections Paperback – 17 September 2007
by
Jonathan Franzen
(Author)
Jonathan Franzen
(Author)
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Product details
- ASIN : 0007232446
- Publisher : 4th Estate GB (17 September 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 672 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780007232444
- ISBN-13 : 978-0007232444
- Dimensions : 12.8 x 4.2 x 19.8 cm
-
Best Sellers Rank:
62,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 121 in U.S. Literary Classics
- 139 in U.S. Humorous Fiction
- 1,662 in European Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Product description
Review
‘A book which is funny, moving, generous, brutal and intelligent, and which poses the ultimate question: what is life for? And that is as much as anyone could ask' Guardian
‘Jonathan Franzen has built a powerful novel out of the swarming consciousness of a marriage, a family, a whole culture’ Don DeLillo
'Impossible to dislike, an unpretentious page-turner' Zadie Smith
'Compelling. A pleasure from beginning to end. Franzen, in one leap, has put himself into the league of Updike and Roth.' Evening Standard
‘A novel of outstanding sympathy, wit, moral intelligence and pathos, a family saga told with stylistic brio and psychological and political insight. No British novelist is currently writing at this pitch’ Financial Times
About the Author
Jonathan Franzen's work includes four novels (The Twenty-Seventh City, Strong Motion, The Corrections, Freedom), two collections of essays (Farther Away, How To Be Alone), a memoir (The Discomfort Zone), and, most recently, The Kraus Project. He is recognised as one of the best American writers of our age and has won many awards. He lives in New York City and Santa Cruz, California.
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Customer reviews
3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
1,119 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
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Top reviews from Australia
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Reviewed in Australia on 16 September 2015
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Pretty well executed, the story runs a bit base and sombre for mine. It reminds me of Irvine Welsh without the cool accents, and with a more subtle attempt at humor. Welsh and Franzen both put their characters through the wringer, and show them at their worst, but ultimately love and redeem them by story's end. I would have gone with a one or two star rating around the time I was tempted to quit, about a quarter of the way through what is a longish book, but I'm back up to three after finishing.
Helpful
Reviewed in Australia on 25 October 2016
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Argh. What an incredibly frustrating book. Franzen writes so well, but much of this book is pure waffle about nothing that is related to the central plot. I was relieved to have finished this book, but also annoyed that I allowed myself to use up so much time reading it.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in Australia on 25 April 2019
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Great Great Great and Great Great Great and Great Great Great and Great Great Great and Great Great Great. Amazing. All. Car. Can’t.
Reviewed in Australia on 23 January 2015
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Easily one of the great books and will go down as a classic piece of western literature. This is a book, I think about the possibilities of healing when the structure of family seems irrevocably broken.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in Australia on 4 February 2016
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Brilliant but flawed by excessive detail about the lives of minor characters and even inanimate objects. An incisive but very negative picture of American life.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in Australia on 28 August 2020
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Very clever and perceptive yet easy to read novel.
Reviewed in Australia on 14 September 2015
Basically, this is a story about a family. The reader is given access to the mind of every member of the family.
The characters are mostly of the 'unlikeable' type and if you want a hero you won't find one. It's not part of Mr Franzen's master plan.
However, it is undeniable that Mr. Franzen is a great writer. Whatever you may think of him as a man or his views, as an author you have to admire his craft and sharp intellect – that alone deserves 3 stars. Every single page has something about it. It spoke to me on some level, whether I agreed or not.
His psychological assault makes it seem as though he is expertly taking apart and putting together the most complex inner workings of an antique clock, but he is doing it with human relationships and the human mind.
I found the book sad, sometimes funny, but often disturbing.
Am I glad that I read it?
YES!
Is it lacking something?
YES, but I am not quite sure what it is. Hence the 4 stars
Sergiu Pobereznic (author)
The characters are mostly of the 'unlikeable' type and if you want a hero you won't find one. It's not part of Mr Franzen's master plan.
However, it is undeniable that Mr. Franzen is a great writer. Whatever you may think of him as a man or his views, as an author you have to admire his craft and sharp intellect – that alone deserves 3 stars. Every single page has something about it. It spoke to me on some level, whether I agreed or not.
His psychological assault makes it seem as though he is expertly taking apart and putting together the most complex inner workings of an antique clock, but he is doing it with human relationships and the human mind.
I found the book sad, sometimes funny, but often disturbing.
Am I glad that I read it?
YES!
Is it lacking something?
YES, but I am not quite sure what it is. Hence the 4 stars
Sergiu Pobereznic (author)
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in Australia on 12 January 2018
I found the characters all very dislikeable & struggled to relate to any one in this story. Chip was especially farcical.. I wondered at points if it was meant to be satirical or something?
Also the minutiae of detail in telling about some things, to me, was overkill.
Still, I finished it.. and actually, didn't want to put it down the past couple of days.. so it can't have been all that bad.
Also the minutiae of detail in telling about some things, to me, was overkill.
Still, I finished it.. and actually, didn't want to put it down the past couple of days.. so it can't have been all that bad.
Top reviews from other countries

M. Dowden
4.0 out of 5 stars
Still A Good Read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 November 2017Verified Purchase
This book did quite well where I live when it first came onto the market, and I did read it then, but coming back to it after some years, and only remembering parts of the story, I did find that it is still a good read.
A social commentary on the times we live in, as well as giving us some biting satire there are a lot of themes that are taken in in this story in which we follow members of one family. Here then we meet the Lambert family with both parents still alive, although the father Alfred has Parkinson’s and dementia and is married to long suffering Enid. Their three children are all grown up and do not live in the same State as their parents, let alone within easy reach of the same town. Here we have Gary, the eldest, followed by Chip, and lastly the youngest, Denise.
This story takes in the decline of America’s heavy industrial past as it comes to changing to services, hi-tec and other sectors, whilst also showing how a dysfunctional family setting can then be transferred to children, and thus the families that they then have. The family members really do have hang-ups and none of them can seem to stay happy for any amount of time, although this does gradually change as the story reaches its climax. Certainly, mirroring the fears and anxieties of America both then and indeed now, to a certain extent this also highlights those that we are also feeling in this country and elsewhere. Also, we see the problems that Eastern European countries faced trying to come to terms with new economic models.
As the main family members try to come to terms with what and who they are this does jump about a bit, not only between characters, but also time periods, as it goes backwards and forwards from present to past. Thoughtful, but also quite humorous on the whole this is intelligently written and does bring up a lot of topics, and could indeed be a good choice for book groups.
A social commentary on the times we live in, as well as giving us some biting satire there are a lot of themes that are taken in in this story in which we follow members of one family. Here then we meet the Lambert family with both parents still alive, although the father Alfred has Parkinson’s and dementia and is married to long suffering Enid. Their three children are all grown up and do not live in the same State as their parents, let alone within easy reach of the same town. Here we have Gary, the eldest, followed by Chip, and lastly the youngest, Denise.
This story takes in the decline of America’s heavy industrial past as it comes to changing to services, hi-tec and other sectors, whilst also showing how a dysfunctional family setting can then be transferred to children, and thus the families that they then have. The family members really do have hang-ups and none of them can seem to stay happy for any amount of time, although this does gradually change as the story reaches its climax. Certainly, mirroring the fears and anxieties of America both then and indeed now, to a certain extent this also highlights those that we are also feeling in this country and elsewhere. Also, we see the problems that Eastern European countries faced trying to come to terms with new economic models.
As the main family members try to come to terms with what and who they are this does jump about a bit, not only between characters, but also time periods, as it goes backwards and forwards from present to past. Thoughtful, but also quite humorous on the whole this is intelligently written and does bring up a lot of topics, and could indeed be a good choice for book groups.
7 people found this helpful
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GH
1.0 out of 5 stars
Corrections took me from 3 books a week to 1 in 6 months 😩
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2020Verified Purchase
Much of Corrections feels self indulgent and a use of language in an attempt to be impressive. For me the result was hard work, barely comprehensible in part and long descriptions of often unimportant events ......making me think after one tedious diatribe “That’s 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back” ...... grrrr. I wondered if this was a literary contribution to the slow movement, however on balance unlike the slow movement I could perceive no benefits.
Each time I looked at % complete it was so low I would become miserable. On a positive note though, this had become a challenge! I was not going to read anything else until I finished it and then I could legitimately slag off this tedium of words.
In a horrendous twist to my fate, in the last 30% I actually started to enjoy it a little. Whilst not actually liking any of the characters, I became at least vaguely interested in what happened to them which was a sizemic shift.
On reflection, there are benefits to this book: 1) helped me to sleep 2) given me a reason for a party now its over 🤗3) saved me money on other books as it is took 50 times longer to read than any other ‘normal’ book (see reason 1) 4) inspired me to write a rare review (so I hope this is of use!)
Good luck if you choose this path!
Each time I looked at % complete it was so low I would become miserable. On a positive note though, this had become a challenge! I was not going to read anything else until I finished it and then I could legitimately slag off this tedium of words.
In a horrendous twist to my fate, in the last 30% I actually started to enjoy it a little. Whilst not actually liking any of the characters, I became at least vaguely interested in what happened to them which was a sizemic shift.
On reflection, there are benefits to this book: 1) helped me to sleep 2) given me a reason for a party now its over 🤗3) saved me money on other books as it is took 50 times longer to read than any other ‘normal’ book (see reason 1) 4) inspired me to write a rare review (so I hope this is of use!)
Good luck if you choose this path!
2 people found this helpful
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Mr. D. Nash
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good dark comedy - but twice as long as it needs to be
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2016Verified Purchase
I grant that Jonathan Franzen has constructed a distinctly dark comic picture of a family - all of whom have severe mental issues. Father Alfred is deeply but ridiculously moral; all his life sexually repressed; suffering from dementia; experiencing hallucinations; exhibiting paranoia. Mother Enid tries to keep the family show on the road; in denial about its deep problems; self deluding about her children; but deeply loving. Wayward Chip is an academic who gets chucked out for sexual misdemeanours; drifts into a friendship with a very dodgy Lithuanian politician; in his shame tries to avoid any protracted family contact. Gifted chef Denise cannot cope well with a stormy lesbian relationship with her boss's wife. There are some stellar comic inventions. However: IT'S TWICE AS LONG AS IT NEEDS TO BE! I almost gave up in exhaustion several times. It is nearly 600 pages long. Why is it that American authors seem to think that their talent is measured by weight or volume? Is the vital art of the editor entirely absent across the water? At 300 pages, this book could have been very good or even excellent. As it is, it has enough highlights for me to give it 3 stars.
4 people found this helpful
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Cool
2.0 out of 5 stars
Over-indulgent, pretentious writing makes this book one to miss.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 November 2016Verified Purchase
It's rare that I feel I have to give up on a book but this one really didn't grab me. It was such a chore to read, seemingly the author feels that his writing is clever and sophisticated, that it shows his excellent grasp of the English language, but I just found it painfully dull. I considered reading through to the end but had to stop just a couple of chapters in.
There are lots of books out there and I don't want to give hours of my life to this one as I really can't see it being worth it. The central character is not one I felt any connection with. He just seems to be a struggling, somewhat shallow and pervy writer with massively stereotyped parents and siblings. Yawn.
I very rarely write reviews yet this book compelled me to warn other readers that they will need some stubborness and stamina to cut through the padding.
I've given it two stars instead of one with the kind expectation that it might get better and have a decent ending. I have other books to read so I'm deleting this one with no particular remorse.
There are lots of books out there and I don't want to give hours of my life to this one as I really can't see it being worth it. The central character is not one I felt any connection with. He just seems to be a struggling, somewhat shallow and pervy writer with massively stereotyped parents and siblings. Yawn.
I very rarely write reviews yet this book compelled me to warn other readers that they will need some stubborness and stamina to cut through the padding.
I've given it two stars instead of one with the kind expectation that it might get better and have a decent ending. I have other books to read so I'm deleting this one with no particular remorse.
5 people found this helpful
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Alison Durant
3.0 out of 5 stars
A difficult read which delivers in the end.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 January 2019Verified Purchase
I really, really struggled with this book for the first 50%. Had I not been reading it for a book club, I doubt if I would have made it past the first few pages.
However, as I progressed I found more to like about the book. It prompted thought and discussion and I found that I actually wanted to finish it to co e to a conclusion.
Not light hearted reading.
However, as I progressed I found more to like about the book. It prompted thought and discussion and I found that I actually wanted to finish it to co e to a conclusion.
Not light hearted reading.
3 people found this helpful
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