Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor
Jonathan Franzen has proven himself to be a writer of many talents; his published works cover fiction (“Purity” and “The Twenty-Seventh City”), nonfiction (“How to Be Alone”), and translation (“Spring Awakening”). Franzen has also dabbled in journalism and has submitted articles to various magazines, including “The New Yorker.”
The essays in his newest book span autobiography, nature, and art. Right out of the gate, Franzen’s writings are dripping with pessimism and a dull outlook on the state of humanity, which is, at first, relatable. But as the book goes on, it becomes a little old. His essays are bursting with a depression and pessimism that truly made me believe that he thinks he is smarter than his readers, and he is trying very hard to prove it to you. A self described “realist,” Franzen seems to be trying to convince his readers that his version of reality is the right one.
All is not lost, though. Franzen makes up for the human-hating and privileged parts of the book with some very good points about climate change and the political gridlock that prevents stimulation and action.
Another redeeming part of the novel is how much of an obvious and self-proclaimed bird geek Franzen is. A great number of his essays are based around birds and their lives.
“If you could see every bird in the world, you’d see the whole world,” wrote Jonathan in his essay titled “Why Birds Matter.” “The radical otherness of birds is integral to their beauty and their value. They are always among us but never of us.”
The deeper into the book I traveled, I realized that Franzen’s depressing pessimism is mostly a defense mechanism.
In the essay “The Regulars,” Franzen wrote about bars: “I become miserable with self-consciousness and thrift and shame and shyness and etiquette anxiety, unless I’m with a group. The result is that I can’t look at the regulars without envy and longing — a wish to be one of the Regulars myself.”
Overall rating: If anyone is going to read this book, I would recommend checking it out from the library.
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Johnathan Franzen
