Descrizione
Price: 10,69€
(as of Sep 14, 2024 06:14:56 UTC – Details)
“A masterpiece of American fiction”
Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times Book Review
A novel from the author of The Corrections.
This is the updated version of the text.
This is the story of the Berglunds, their son Joey, their daughter Jessica and their friend Richard Katz. It is about how we use and abuse our freedom; about the beginning and ending of love; teenage lust; the unexpectedness of adult life; why we compete with our friends; how we betray those closest to us; and why things almost never work out as they ‘should’. It is a story about the human heart, and what it leads us to do to ourselves and each other.
In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s intensely realized characters, as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.
Dall’editore
ASIN : B0044DE906
Editore : Fourth Estate (23 settembre 2010)
Lingua : Inglese
Dimensioni file : 1990 KB
Da testo a voce : Abilitato
Screen Reader : Supportato
Miglioramenti tipografici : Abilitato
X-Ray : Abilitato
Word Wise : Abilitato
Memo : Su Kindle Scribe
Lunghezza illustrazione : 610 pagine
Mario –
Almost as good as “The Corrections”
It has all the nice characteristics of Franzen’s novel, and the complexity of the plot and the bitter sarcasm reminded me of “The Corrections”: If you liked “The Corrections” you should read this one as well.
Elisabetta F. –
interesting portrait of modern life with its challenges
Good reading and a portrait of the challenges of modern life. Principles vs pragmatism. Being yourself vs sacrificing for others. Emotional barriers and lack of comminication even within the family.Finding the meaning of true love.
A.D.N. –
Imperdibile
Il libro di più vite che si intrecciano, sotto la guida magistrale dell’autore, che scompare tra le pagine facendo emergere i personaggi con una realtà disarmante.
Rebecca –
Eco-novel genre
I haven’t read The Corrections yet, so I can’t make comparisons to Franzen’s most popular novel. I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed this, though I found it ultimately tiring and overall, slightly overrated for an “American masterpiece”. There are certain aspects of human dynamics that are only hinted at and briefly dismissed, while other ecological/political themes are dealt with extensively, if not exhaustively. I devoured it until the Canadian warbler issue came up and got a life of it’s own, overpowering the rest.
Laura –
New!
Fast delivery, book in excellent quality as described! Really satisfied. I’d buy at this shop again. Thanks for selling me the book!
FilippoG –
Un romanzo lungo una vita
Anzi molte vite. A volte sembra che ci siano troppe parole, troppe storie, troppi dettagli che diluiscono la storia principale, ma obbliga il lettore ad avere pazienza, come i personaggi devono averla per crescere e capirsi e essere capaci di stare insieme. La cosa più bella è la capacità di vedere i propri limiti e di accettarli. E’ la cosa più difficile , ma l’unica che permette di evadere dai propri limiti e dalla solitudine. Un libro interessante che richiede pazienza, ma ne vale la pena. Forse il riferimento a Guerra e pace non è casuale! Proprio questo dettaglio mi da un esempio della ricchezza del libro. Patty legge Guerra e pace in un momento difficile. Durante il viaggio a Chicago con Richard. Viaggio che finisce in un completo fallimento e che le lascia la curiosità di conoscere Richard. La trama del libro di Tolstoj viene descritta brevemente, ma sembra sterile e casuale in quel momento della vita di Patty. Dopo molto tempo quel romanzo le serve per interpretare quello che le succede. Insomma questo romanzo è un’esperienza di vita. La sua lunghezza serve anche ad accumulare esperienze e poi vederle riusare dopo.
Amazon Customer –
Jealousy, loyalty, attraction
All relationships are complicated – jealousy, loyalty, attraction are all intertwined. Franzen is a master in depicting this kind of dynamics, and to show that “pure sentiment” just doesn’t exist. You can hate the woman you love, love the friend who betrayed you, admire a parent you strive to be different from. That’s how life goes on, over years, decades and generations.
Daniele –
Storia famigliare
Avevo letto le Correzioni in italiano: Franzen si conferma un ottimo autore, molto attento alla psicologia dei personaggi. Leggere in inglese è più affascinante, ma anche più faticoso! Alcune parole non si trovano nemmeno sul dizionario, probabilmente è slang americano.
H. Soree –
Jonathan Franzen is a master juggler with words, facts, imaginations and fantasies. And if you want to improve your English: read Franzen and have a dictionary ready
Julio Cejudo Tejero –
Personajes bien desarrollados, dialogos consecuentes con la personalidad de cada uno, una historia que engancha…un libro con mayusculas.Lo recomiendo encarecidamente
Len –
I loved ‘War and Peace’ and I gotta say, I really liked ‘Freedom.’ I couldn’t finish Franzen’s previous novel, ‘Corrections’ but the story of a family coping with one of the most tumultuous times in the history of mankind, in the country that would fall from its status as empire has got to be interesting. The fact that it’s a story about minor characters makes it even better. There are no nobles in this story, no heads of states or corporations, just ordinary folk attempting to cope. When I started the book, I thought I’d last fifty pages at most. Instead, I was picking it up every spare minute I could find. Patty Berglund is the mom, Walter is the father, Joey, the son and Jennifer, the daughter. Walter and Patty both have parents and siblings and both share Richard, a mutual friend. Patty and Walter grow up during the sixties and early seventies, have children, find jobs in the eighties, become disillusioned in the nineties and find new jobs in the new millennium. Their country goes from a Cold War participant to omniscient over all nations to pathetic has-been and so these times are reflected the lives of the Berglunds. At the time of their birth, the fabric of American society is held together by cloth that keeps its shape by a frame that pulls from opposite directions. And suddenly, with the end of the Cold War, one side is broken and the cloth is left to flap limp, exposed to breezes from any direction whereby each thread must decide how it’s going to fit, whether to remain part of the cloth or let go and be taken in whatever direction the breeze might be blowing. So, we see with the family. The grandparents don’t question their place in the scheme of American life and neither do the children. It’s the parents, Walter and Patty who are lost not knowing whether to hold on or let go. This is a fantastic book. Only time will determine its eligibility as a classic.
John Marshall Tanner –
Like many of you, perhaps, I was a bit turned off by all the advance hype surrounding this book. Many have called it a masterpiece, even Book of the Century.I wouldn’t go that far–but it is certainly an excellent novel which succeeds on several levels. It is literary, yet it is blockbuster stuff in its commercial connotations, with lots of sex and topical concerns. A novel for our times, yet one which resonates with the classics.The first section is a very comfortable read. For a time, it seemed almost a parody or tribute to Garrison Keillor’s monologues about Lake Woebegone, such as collected in his volume, LIBERTY. It opens in Minnesota too, but instead of a rural neighborhood, this is the suburbs, and the narrative seemingly turns onto the set of Wisteria Lane in DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.Still, the first section, entitled “Good Neighbors,” is an entertaining satire, nicely paced and well sprinkled with insights about archetypical types. I especially enjoyed the conspiratorial tone.The next section is an autobiography of one of the main characters written in the third person with editorial asides. This sets the out the main characters and the plot for the novel, though the novel has already been succinctly foreshadowed in the lone epigraph:Go, togetherYou precious winners all. I, an old turtle,Will wing me to some withered bough, and thereMy mate, that’s never to be found again,Lament till I am lost. –Shakespeare, THE WINTER’S TALEAs I say, much of the novel is about winners and losers, freedom vs. responsibility. Franzen sets up a trinity of main characters, Patti and her husband Walter as suburban Adam and Eve, and Adam’s friend, Richard, as the snake in the Garden.This trinity consists of Walter (mind/spirit dominated), Richard (flesh dominated), and wishy-washy Patti, who wants to have both and wavers between the two.About midway through the book, Lilitha is introduced. Make no mistake, she is an incarnation of Lilith from the Garden of Eden Myth, a mirror to Richard, with a Lilith agenda against population growth, babies–and childbirth in principle.Franzen uses literary and musical references to support his arguments (and much of the novel seems argued). Regarding winners and losers, he mentions Bob Dylan’s showing up Donovan in the documentary, “Don’t Look Back.” He shows Richard reading his favorite new novelist, Thomas Bernhard, but doesn’t tell us which book he is reading.Of course, if you’ve read Thomas Bernhard’s THE LOSER, you would know which book it was, for that is the world in which Richard would find himself at home.And Patti reads WAR AND PEACE, skimming over the military parts to get to Tolstoy’s soap-opera sections, which resonate well with this novel. The text mentions WAR AND PEACE several times as if justify its own use of melodrama–see, the classics used soap too.Other classical references are mentioned: Aristotle and the different kinds of causes: Material, efficient, formal, and final. Walter sees the final cause of most of the world’s problems as unlimited population growth, which aligns him with Lilith.Richard is a counter-culture rock musician who finally becomes successful after souring on the business, as can be seen in an interview after a Grammy nomination. Note the reference to Rousseau:”Q: What do you think of the MP3 revolution?A: Ah, revolution, wow. It’s great to hear the word “revolution” again. It’s great that a song now costs exactly the same as a pack of gum and lasts exactly the same amount of time before it loses its flavor and you have to spend another buck.That era which finally ended but yesterday, whenever–you know, that era when we pretended rock was the scourge of conformity and consumerism, instead of its anointed handmaid–that era was really irritating to me. I think it’s good for the honesty of rock and roll and good for the country in general that we can finally see Bob Dylan and Iggy Pop for what they really were: as manufacturers of winter-green Chiclets.Q: So you’re saying rock has lost its subversive edge?A: I’m saying it never had any subversive edge. It was always wintergreen Chiclets, we just enjoyed pretending otherwise.Q: What about when Dylan went electric?A: If you’re going to talk about ancient history, let’s go back to the French revolution. Remember when, I forget his name, but that rocker who wrote “Marseillaise, Jean Jacques Whoever–remember when his song started getting all that airplay in 1792, and suddenly the peasantry rose up and overthrew the aristocracy? There was a song that changed the world.Attitude was what the peasants were missing. They already had everything else–humiliating servitude, grinding poverty, unpayable debts, horrific working conditions. But without a song, man, it added up to nothing. The sansculotte style was what really changed the world….We in the Chiclet manufacturing business are not about social justice, we’re not about accurate or objectively verifiable information, we’re not about meaningful labor, we’re not about a coherent set of national ideals, we’re not about wisdom. . .”After finishing the book, you’ll have to ask yourself, is this book brilliant and profound or is it just another box of wintergreen Chiclets?Seems to me, the correct answer is: both.
Marie Perget –
Du grand Johnathan Franzen, si vous avez aimé Les Corrections, vous aimerez Freedom. L’histoire en quelques mots :Patty Berglund, mariée, deux enfants, revient sur sa vie, ses bons moments, ses erreurs, ses passages à vides. entremélée entre sonr écit, on trouve le point de vue de chaque personnage sur cette même vie (son mari, sa fille et son fils).C’est très bien écrit (les plus de 700 pages passent très rapidement), très juste et touchant. Je le recommande chaudement.