This book is so depressing. The way the charecters interact, the little tradgedies of every life… and especially the end. I didn’t enjoy the book, and I’m not sold on all of the stylistic points, but it is very effective in making you squirm with annoyance and sorrow.

An interesting book to read, and definitely worth reading, although (strangely enough), I’m not sure I really “liked” it. The writing is beautifully crafted, and the characters are well-developed. Trouble is, almost none of them are actually likeable (this, for me, is usually a big stumbling block for me in terms of enjoying a novel. If there’s no one I can like, I’m usually not very happy). Somehow I managed to get through this, though – as one earlier reviewer said, the author shows both great contempt and great tenderness for his characters. That’s it exactly. I’ll give this one 7/10.

I know a ton of people loved this novel, but from the very beginning, I was distracted by the style of writing. It was so pompous, I couldn’t take it anymore. I’ll try again some other time.

“The taste of self-inflicted suffering, of an evening trashed in spite, brought curious satisfactions.”

“If Mom and Dad were my children, whom I’d created out of nothing without asking their permission, I could understand being responsible for them. Parents have an overwhelming Darwinian hard-wired genetic stake in their welfare. But children, it seems to me, have no corresponding debt to their parents.”

A terrific portrayal of the patriarch, matriarch, and 3 grown children of an upwardly-mobile Midwestern family. I’ve never seen an author express so much contempt and yet so much tenderness for his characters – just as the characters have such contempt and tenderness for each other. Ridiculously perceptive.

I only read this because I found it for a buck at a yard sale … well, that and the fact that everyone I know who read it really liked it ;)
I didn’t think I’d be able to relate to it at all judging from the blurb and summary, but I was. Franzen did a terrific job with all his characters.

As I started to read this I realized that a couple of years ago I’d begun to listen to the audio version of it and somehow never finished it. It’s been easier to get into this second time around, and I’m curious about the point where I got lost before—why did I stop listening? We’ll see.

This is an amazingly written, very dark, insightful and, occasionally extremely funny look at a modern American family. “Tragedy rewritten as farce” as one character puts it. Highly recommended.

Awesome work of literature.

likely the best work of fiction i’ve read in the past five years. hilarious, absorbing and deeply moving. so skillfully written it hurts. recommended without reservation.