Is There Anyone Else Who Has Avoided Reading Jonathan Franzen Because of His Boring-Looking Face?

I'd do him.

can't get into his books.

The Star Trek guy writes books?

He looks different, now.

Oh, I thought I was looking at Stephen King.

R4 I wonder, if I start writing successful books while I go through such a metamorphosis as well?

He used to be adorably cute. Look at the jacket photo on his first novel, The Twenty-seventh City

I have The Corrections on my bookshelf-is it any good? Thinking about starting it.

I read the Corrections, to be honest, I don't remember what it was about, but I believe I thought it was good at the time.

Are you really as dumb as you type, OP?

R8 that pretty sums up Franzen's writing, for me anyway. If you can even get into one of Franzen's books, you'll be thinking "Yeah, this is pretty good" while you're reading it, because he does write well at times. But you forget it as soon as you're done, because basically, it's all boring.

Our grandparents had Hemingway and Fitzgerald -- we get Franzen and Phillip Roth

R11, for some non-boring and incredibly beautiful writing, I humbly suggest Louise Erdrich. Woefully under-appreciated modern writer.

I know Louise, r12, and you know Louise, but most people don't but should.

All they know is the noisy coffee chat writers.

R13, are you also R11? Either way, your post made me smile, which I haven't done today.

I loved The Corrections but couldn't finish his latest, Freedom. Just didn't care about any of the characters or what happened to them.

Freedom was a mess. Overwrought and overrated.

I didn't finish Freedom, either. I read about two-thirds and then never picked it up again.

I read The Corrections which was allegedly a masterpiece. I persisted to the bitter, boring end.

I cannot recall a single thing about that book now, several years later. That's how memorable it was.

I just remember him as the only writer to reject The Oprah Book Club Treatment.

IIRC, he did this before the guy who wrote the fake memoir "A Million Little Pieces." So he didn't experience THE WRATH OF OPRAH right in the face like Fakey Fakerson did.

damn, OP, you sound like one fucking shawllow piece of shit. Don Dellilo and Phillip Roth are both ugly fucks, does that cross them off your list too, you sad sack of shit?

Seems a common reaction, forgetting. All I recall is the guy stuffing the smoked salmon down his pants.

Was told that to really appreciate Franzen, you had to be in the "right mood" to read his work. I haven't gotten to that point yet.

He was cute, once.

R20, I don't think those two are ugly. They have faces. I don't care if someone is different-looking. I don't even think too much about what a writer looks like, but this guy's face just seems BLAND and BORING and when I read descriptions of his books, they also seem boring.

I find him hot! Maybe I should read his books, now.

Add me to the list of those who read The Corrections and can't remember what it is about.

[quote] Oh, I thought I was looking at Stephen King.

They must have the same father. That's the only way this hack is still getting stuff published.

One of his books takes place in Vilnus, right?

[quote]I don't even think too much about what a writer looks like

yes, you do, blanche, read the title of your thread again, dearie.

No, I don't R29. I don't even know what some writers look like. I think when they were pushing this guy they put his (boring) face out their a lot. The promotion was his boring face, for his boring book.

I liked the book a lot, but I frankly never think about what an author looks like, I find it fatuous that you'd even care.

"Out their," r30? You type boringfaced.

This sounds like a GAWKER article. (That's not a compliment, by the way.)

I tried. In the first chapter of one of his books...can't remember which one...he wrote a sentence that was an entire paragraph long. I was so distracted by that and by thinking 'God, what a pretentious twat', that I stopped reading then and there.

I was overwhelmed by both The Corrections and Freedom. They're both remarkable, and his breadth of knowledge and research and his ability to make you understand the world that all the different people live in is extraordinary.

I've read Erdich. She leaves me a little cold. She went to Dartmouth, where I went to grad school, and is lionized there. I might try another one, but I just couldn't get into it. Can anyone recommend one that I should try?

What about Chabon? Kavelier and Clay is probably my favorite modern novel, yet I just can't get into any of his newer books. They just seem bloated and uninteresting. Despite being a huge music fan, I couldn't get more than a third into Telegraph Avenue., which is odd, because I don't care for comic books, yet I couldn't put Kavelier and Clay down.

I have no idea what he looks like, and I really enjoyed reading "The Corrections" years ago. I don't recall a single thing about it, but I do recall being very engaged by it and reading it quickly, which is fun.

Though I did get through Telegraph Hill, I didn't like it much. I found the Alaska book impenetrable, r35

I liked both "The Corrections" and "Freedom" a great deal.

Most great authors are not particularly goodlooking. Why do you care what he looks like?

R35 I LOVE Chabon's Kavalier & Clay. As for Erdrich seeming cold, I guess it could depend on which you read but mostly I find her books raw and wrenching. I would say start with Love Medicine, then follow with the books that expand on the families introduced in those stories, the Kashpaws, Lamartines, etc. I also loved Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, which does have some of those characters but focuses on a character who is only briefly brought up in the original cycle. I just read Tracks again and it was painful to get through, in a good way. Her characters are so fully drawn, and like actual walking humans do, they use humor realistically to keep their spirits alive in the face of crushing devastation. She keeps going back to people who are interrelated in some way, not necessarily in chronological order, and knowing where someone is going to end up before you start reading about them as a hopeful youth is devastating. There's a very dry, gallows-type humor in many of her books that I guess if you weren't looking for it might seem "cold"? I don't know. But pick up Love Medicine, if you're willing to give her another shot. She's the opposite of cold, to me, but to each one's own in matters of taste.

I'm sorry R35, it's early for me and I didn't read your post as carefully as I should have, you said Erdrich left you cold, not that her writing was cold.

I know I enjoyed both the Corrections and Freedom but I don't recall a single thing about them. I seem to recall a cruise to Alaska figuring into one of them? I loved Chabon's Kavalier & Caly, but am still trying to muster up the wherewithal to pick up Telegraph Hill again -- I got through a third of it when it came out and never picked it up again.

Thank you for the comments re Edrich, even if you misread what I meant. I appreciate your thoughts. Oddly enough, it was Love Medicine that I read, and I just didn't enjoy it. I don't read a lot of fiction -- I read mostly social studies, but like to be at least somewhat aware of the authors I should be aware of -- and didn't realize that she used the same rotating cast of characters for subsequent books. I love that idea, and, you're right, there is something truly heartbreaking about knowing how a hopeful youngster will turn up. (That's one of the reasons the song "We were only Freshmen" breaks my heart; there is such a sadness to looking back on seeming invincibility.) I will give it another go. She and I actually have a few friends in common, so I should be better-prepared should I ever meet her!

And: sometimes I get on here and am filled with such disgust when people are bitter and mean for no reason. It's wonderful to be able to pop on and see thoughtful, considered responses. There seems to be such a dichotomy of users on here: those that love to criticize and insult their fellow users, and those who actually wish to engage in some sort of legitimate transfer of information. I hope I see more the latter, and less of the former.

I read The Corrections: all I seem to remember is it was like a very special episode of The Sally Field Programme: white disfunctional family and crazy-cute shenaningans. I was surprised when the HBO adaptation was cancelled, the book seemed like perfect fodder for a big budget, self important, soap opera for HBO main audience (white, privileged whiners)

Hi R43, nice to read your comments and I agree with you about the bitter mean people, except I don't allow myself to get disgusted because I actually find so much good here! Also because so much of the mean stuff isn't even clever, it allows me to shake my head and wonder why someone even bothered to type it. I have learned so many useful things and such helpful advice for living on DL (yeah, bitter people, laugh at me all you want.) From handy tips, to things that have kept me going, when honestly, I don't really care to. I stay alive because ending my life would hurt some people immeasurably, and it's a struggle for me to find any spark of a reason to not just stop moving and wish my life away. DL is a place I can go when I can't think of a single reason to connect to life.

Unfortunately, I don't think the balance between what you want to see more of and what you want to see less of is going to change, the population is too steady; kind of like the way you can't pull up your grade average with one A+ at the end of the semester when you've built up a whole sea of different grades to average in. And who's to say it isn't sometimes the same people? I've had posts be widely misunderstood, often because of a poor choice of words, and wished I could go back and delete them, but DL is like life that way--you can't un-say things. So I keep sifting through, looking for the good seeds, and I find them. (Listen to the borderline-suicidal person being a know-it-all, there's a laugh, right?)

If you aren't a big fiction reader, Love Medicine might not be the best to start with, because although it is coherent, it's told in the form of interconnected short stories which might not be as satisfying to you as a traditionally structured novel. I might suggest skipping to Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, in your case. If that doesn't do it for you, you can say you've given it your best shot and move on. :)

Have you tried Alice Munro's short stories?

In general, I don't have a lot of favorite authors whose every book I am going to love. I have a lot of one-off favorites. Kavalier & Clay is one. So is A Confederacy of Dunces. And a very under-read one that I think is heartbreaking is The Death of The Heart by Elizabeth Bowen. I wish I could suggest things more in your area of interest, but I don't have a lot of nonfiction knowledge in spite of my undergrad interest in Anthropology.

I met him in the late 80s, when he was a dewy young WASP, and totally fuckable. But 20+ years of anger and bitterness at not becoming the Great American Novelist (as if there could ever be such a thing in the Internet Age) has taken its toll on his fuckability.

This is the non fiction reader again. Thank you for your lovely response R45. I, too, have suicidal thoughts, and even tried it a while back but, obviously, it didn't work! If you were in Nashville -- where I am -- I'd say let's meet for coffee and compare notes.

I'd reply at longer-length, but am running out the door right now. I just wanted to thank you for your response and recommendation. (PS -- despite reading mostly non-fiction, I read everything Nick Hornby writes. If you're a music fan, Juliet Naked is a must read, as it is a brilliant send up of crazed fans and music obsessives. )

The Oprah business just closed it down forever.

R47/nonfiction reader, I love Nick Hornby too! I haven't read Juliet, Naked yet because I can't afford to buy books right now (not working for reasons that suck) but I have it on reserve at the library. I can see you still have a sense of humor, as do I. A couple friends have even suggested I get involved in comedy in some way, but I don't know how my subject matter would go over (suicide hahaha!). Anyway, my point is, maybe that's something for us to cling to, something to keep our heads above water.

I'm nowhere near Nashville, but it doesn't matter because I don't really have the wherewithal to leave my apartment much these days. Geography and my own limitations aside, I have made actual outside connections from DL before, even though they stay online. Keep talking, maybe we'll figure something out.

Keep on not killing yourself, and I'll do the same! :)

Is he transgendered?

R 49. Things are better now. I went through a spell when everything was going wrong. I no longer liked what I was doing. Someone I lived with knew the passcode to all my banks and stole all my money from me. (I wouldn't prosecute him, so the bank's insurance wouldn't cover it. I'd rather forgive someone than see them in prison.) I was also doing steroids -- I was a nerd with a fucking awesome body -- and stopped taking them. All of that combined led me into a pretty fucking bad depression, and I was just tired of everything and tried to kill myself. It didn't work. I'm fine now, although I'm somewhat friendless, partly because I'm a dyed-in-the-wool liberal new englander who shouldn't be living in the south at all and just don't connect with the people here, an because , I suspect, my formers friends probably no longer want the responsibility of worrying "if I'm ok", and partly because Im an extreme introvert who would rather control the nature of social engagement. I no longer have the strong urge to kill myself, but I do think I will die by my own hand. Maybe tomorrow, maybe 20 years from now. Maybe 30. I think there is a point where living just doesn't make any sense, and -- given I have no close friends and having someone take care of me should I eve get sick or anything is anathema to me -- I will probably just know when life is not worth living anymore. I don't mean that in a "woe is me, goodbye cruel world" kind of way. I just mean at a certain point you know you've reached your sell by date. We all have one. I'm an atheist, so I'm not worried about the ever after or committing a sin by killing myself, or going to hell for doing it, et. I think when we die, we die. I just hope I don't hurt anyone when I do it. I hope you're ok. I know what it's like to not leave the house. I go for days and days without any contact with people. I will say, though, that the longer you do it, the harder it is to make that move, so I hope you maybe take small steps out of your room. And I hope your night was excellent.

I love my night life

I'm not over the moon about his writing, but I think well of him.

He did what he called a one-stop book tour in 2013 for The Kraus Project and it happened to be easy for me to go (in Santa Cruz, Calif.). So I went with what one might euphemistically call low expectations, was pleasantly surprised and had a great time. JF is quick and smart; seemed in good spirits; gave long, thoughtful answers to a lot of questions; and spent plenty of time with people who got books signed.

R51 I get the "shelf-life" idea, having a bad diagnosis myself that will lead to someone eventually having to take care of me. I hope to take myself off the shelf shortly before I'm unable to. But I might have a 20 year slog ahead of me! I don't know if it's a thought worth holding onto daily, though, especially as your initial situation was a confluence of bad events that you came out the other side of. At least you know you have the ability to get through things.

I've really never gotten off the ground. Just can't get it right. If things get going too well (coming even close to a reasonably okay life) it generally means I'm in for a big fall, which just recently happened for the third time in my adult life. I know now not to aim too high because I can't handle it. Yeah, I'm in more than one category that would get called "special snowflake" here (I don't mind, people don't understand that when it's not self-diagnosed and flaunted, it's probably actually shitty to have and more of a depressing obstacle than something that sets you apart as special). I'm supposed to be getting ready to bring paperwork to the local DES office and just don't want to deal with it.

His new novel, "Purity," is out September 1st:

R54. This is R51 and previous R's. Although I don't know you, I'm sorry you're having to deal with some terrible issues. Someone I know has Parkinson's, and I have seen his health deteriorate over time. He was able to function for quite a while, but it's clear that he shouldn't be driving at this point, but he's afraid of giving up that last bit of freedom. I feel for him. He is a great guy, and has taken his sentence with a great deal of grace. I wouldn't be so accepting. I would have thrown myself in front of a train a long time ago. Everyone has a line past which we no longer want to live. I don't necessarily know mine, but I think I will know it when I see it. I don't know the issues you're dealing with, but I hope that they are something that is reversible. Life is hard, but sometimes we really do get a lucky break; we just have to be aware of it. I hope you find one. And: although I maintain that I am friendless, I know in my heart that there are many people who would do what they can for me. I choose to think of myself as friendless, I think, because it's easier to be a recluse that way, and I can shuck this mortal coil a little easier. I'm sure, too, that you have more people who love you than you think you do. I hope you reach out to them, or they realize that they can be of some help. My fingers are crossed for you, and I hope your day is a good one.

You seem shallow, OP.

Stephen King has a long-lost twin brother!

I have avoided reading him because he's a whiny fucking tasteless cunt who thought Edith Wharton wasn't interesting because she wasn't sexy.

2015. Imagine what he looks like now!

I just couldn't with his first book and never tried again.

I can deal with a writer who's a bit up his/her own ass if the results are good (hello, Mr. Chabon!) but he's just a smug piece of shit, to be honest. In print and on screen.

DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE DIE BUMP TROLL DIE

I read The Corrections a while ago. I fucking hated it. I think that, at the time, we still had this collective belief that the “Great American Novel” was still a thing that was up for grabs and just around the corner. I read Phillip Roth, and Wally Lamb, and David Foster Wallace, and Saul Bellow, and John Updike. None of them surpassed anything that James Joyce or Virginia Woolf or Faulkner had done decades earlier. I don’t really give a shit about hetero affluent white male American bullshit anymore, as far as my current reading is concerned.

I think Bellow and Updike produced good work and Updike was a talented essayist.

The Great American Novel is probably The Great Gatsby, which gets the most done in the least amount of pages. The Sound and the Fury, The House of Mirth, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter and The Golden Bowl are all contenders.

R64 I haven't read any o them :(

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Are you for real? DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD. DO NOT REWARD.

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

Feed R66 to the troll.

I like the troll

I avoid him because his work was billed as The Next Great American Novel but it was nothing more than dull (and unbearably long) suburbanite tripe. His pinched bitch face and prissy Ms. Thang attitude don't help either.

R57 or R58 is the 2015 bump troll.

He's a total weirdo: went to see him be interviewed in a live settings a few years back. He never smiled or engaged the audience and mostly mumbled his answers in a monotone.

R66 You are exponentially more annoying. Please seek mental health interventions, immediately.

R71 I've heard similar anecdotes.Franzen seems like the type who desperately wants to project the troubled brooding artist stereotype but just comes across as a rancid asshole. A lot of successful writers, particularly east coast ones, tend to be major condescending snots. And never quite as brilliant as they imagine.