Current reading
Why do I find The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen so moving? Easy. My father is in the same age bracket as the character Alfred Lambert. Luckily for us he doesn't suffer from dementia, as Albert does, but there's no escaping what age and infirmity have wrought on him. And this is Franzen's genius. In a time of youth obsession and body cults, he has fearlessly and sympathetically tackled the issues that Douglas Coupland, Bret Easton Ellis and so many others have avoided: decay, illness, irrelevance, incontinence, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, to mention but a few of the indignities age has a gift for bestowing on people.
Despite the honesty about the ageing and the raging against the dying of the light, as Dylan Thomas put it, Franzen's book is not morbid. Far from it. He skewers the tenure racket, the dot com mania and the nuclear family with irreverent humour, while taking amusingly accurate pot-shots at food fads and confused sexuality. The result is a bookful of characters that'll remain with you long after you've done reading about their very human lives.
I have a paperback copy of the book, by the way, and I discovered something while reading it that forced me to contact the Publicity Department of Farrar, Straus & Giroux at 19 Union Square West New York, NY 10003. Here's our correspondence on the matter:
Dear Sir or Madam I have a question regarding "The Corrections" that you may be able to help me with. I am reading the paperback version (Picador USA, ISBN 0-312-98429-4) and am enjoying the book hugely. However, I am perplexed by the following: page 442 is followed by page 411. The same text again for 30 pages! Is this a Joycean device or a printing error? Is there a press release on the matter that you can point me to? Is the author aware of this? I look forward to your response.Yours faithfully
Eamonn Fitzgerald
Two days later, came this reply:
Dear Eamonn, What you found must have been a printing mistake in your particular copy. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. Sincerely, Sarah Moriarty Publicity Assistant
Do I now have a rare copy of The Corrections on my hands? Should I see how much it would bring on e-Bay?
