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Author Jonathan Franzen was spotted reading the Franzen novel “Freedom” outside a Minneapolis Starbucks last Thursday. This marks the sixth time in the past three years that Franzen has been caught thumbing through the work.
“I’m almost done,” reported Franzen on being approached, “and I really want to see what happens to Patty. Isn’t it interesting to see how the exercise of one’s freedom can often inhibit the freedom of others, sometimes even the freedom of the very ones one loves most?"
Franzen’s hardback copy of the novel was heavily annotated, with multiple colored sticky notes inserted at various pages and enthusiastic underlining where he felt that the book made compelling points. The 1996 Guggenheim fellow and amateur bird watcher sipped his coffee and moved through the book with a plainly visible half-smile.
“It’s so good to see a social realist novel these days. And I think that the plight of the songbird is both an interestingly realized plot point and an elegant metaphor for the high costs that freedom comes with."
The novel, which many have described as Tolstoyan in its themes and scope, met largely positive reviews and was received as a successful follow-up to 2001’s “The Corrections.” It was a 2010 pick for Oprah’s Book Club and enjoyed excellent sales.
“I guess the real question is, how far is too far to go in order to realize freedom? That’s the question I know I’ll be asking myself for a long time to come—long after I find out what’s to happen to the all-American Berglund family that finds itself unwittingly at the center of this ripping good read.”
