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The Corrections

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The Corrections

By: Jonathan Franzen
Narrated by: George Guidall
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About this listen

 THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ‘A genuine masterpiece, the first great American novel of the twenty-first century’ Elle ‘Funny, moving, generous, brutal and intelligent’ Guardian

A brilliantly perceptive and moving novel that announced Jonathan Franzen as one of our greatest living writers.

The Lamberts – Enid, Alfred and their three grown-up children – are a troubled family living in a troubled age. After fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid is ready to have some fun, but her husband Alfred is losing his mind to Parkinson’s. As his condition worsens, and the Lamberts are forced to face the long-buried secrets and failures that haunt them, Enid sets her heart on gathering everyone together for one last family Christmas.

‘Compellingly readable, funny and above all generous spirited’ Daily Mail

‘A novel of outstanding sympathy, wit, moral intelligence and pathos, a family saga told with stylistic brio and psychological and political insight’ Financial Times

‘A big-hearted, panoramic American epic, intelligent and wise but also wildly, stonkingly funny’ Independent

©2021 Jonathan Franzen (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Marriage

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Critic reviews

"Jonathan Franzen has built a powerful novel out of the swarming consciousness of a marriage, a family, a whole culture - our culture. And he has done it with a sympathy and expansiveness that bends the edgy modern temper to a generous breadth of vision." (Don DeLillo)

"Funny and deeply sad, large-hearted and merciless, The Corrections is a testament to the range and depth of pleasures great fiction affords." (David Foster Wallace)

"In its complexity, its scrutinizing and utterly unsentimental humanity, and its grasp of the subtle relationships between domestic drama and global events, The Corrections stands in the company of Mann's Buddenbrooks and DeLillo's White Noise. It is a major accomplishment." (Michael Cunningham)

"A genuine masterpiece, the first great American novel of the twenty-first century." (Elle)

"Funny, moving, generous, brutal and intelligent." (Guardian)

"Compellingly readable, funny and above all generous spirited." (Daily Mail)

"A novel of outstanding sympathy, wit, moral intelligence and pathos, a family saga told with stylistic brio and psychological and political insight." (Financial Times)

"A big-hearted, panoramic American epic, intelligent and wise but also wildly, stonkingly funny." (Independent)

All stars
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JF has the gift of emotional observation with exceptional clarity. His use of similes provides insight into his characters allowing listeners to understand their complexities. An opus with many parts always making sense of many-facetted emotional situations. The narration is masterly defining all the characters differences exceptionally well.
I have not listened to anything comparable.

An Opus of remarkable quality and scope

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I loved and admired this book. All those voices and threads. All that ambition to encompass all those worlds but centred on one family. I bought a copy when it came out and I am only now listening to it… twenty years late. Highly highly recommended!

Brilliant, epic, encyclopaedic

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This book is jaw-clenchingly relatable. I loved it. The interwoven stories are done with a building suspense, and even the most mundane lives are turned to intrigue. I'm so glad that my partner recommended it as one of his favourites. It reminds me a lot of my family, my grandparents dysfunction, my parents, my own. To be honest at first I found the whole thing a bit depressing, what a horrible look at a load of deeply depressing lives. But honestly, by the end, there was something refreshing to it. Something that made me want to keep going. With the book, and with my own depressing, mundane, fascinating life.

um hello parents

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Dark, funny in parts, very moving in others.
There’s no hero here but you bond with the characters that are so vividly brought to life

Insightful, excellently written family biopic

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What’s not to like, a true story teller of the reality of living- being part of & parenting a family & watching the end. Poetic & exquisite in the telling.

So true it’s painful!

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If you have a complicated family, beware. I found myself getting so anxious with the story over and over because most characters are sooo flawed and they all believe they’re right and you just want to punch people or just start screaming. Great characterisation and great narration if it awakens all these feelings.

Not for the faint hearted

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A fantastic family drama, beautifully performed by the reader. Both hilarious and poignant at the same time.

Little gem

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I enjoyed this very much and found it interesting, if not a little too ‘wordy’ in parts. It went in a bit sometimes.
However, it was fascinating and focused on a topic that most people have to deal with either directly or indirectly in their lifetimes. It was written with such comprehension and empathy for each character. The author manages to accomplish this incredibly, with humour and pity, yet without any patronising aspect whatsoever.

It’s an excellent book and I would recommend it. It will last in my mind for many years - hopefully!

The performance is excellent and brought the novel to life completely. Thank you.

Fascinating and superbly performed.

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The juxtaposition of time and the events in the different lives. Enjoyed the author’s little rants and “lists”

Themes of family are very relevant

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I thought the different threads were too disparate. stories and d characters were bought in that had no relevance to the main plot. because of this I found the book overlong but otherwise enjoyable

the humour was excellent as was most of the story

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