Jonathan Franzen

I don't like Jonathan Franzen.

I was told I would *love* The Corrections and I didn't - it was over hyped melodrama with an unoriginal plot done many times before in many better ways. Ah, the great American novel by the great American narcissist novelist - Even Oprah can't keep her hands off him. Needless to say I won't be reading Freedom, because that doesn't seem like freedom to me. But the hype continues (best author eva! book of the century!) and doubt sets in, so I read the digested read. Yup, sounds like Corrections Part 2. Still I feel like the only person on the planet that doesn't care for him.

While all the people that are meant to know whats what in the what vomit love and adulation for his drivel, I'm left scratching my head... until this morning : Franzen snubbed!

Its really more than just schadenfreude - It like a correction (haha) in collective critical judgement. The line that warms my heart is '"...the instructions to judges were to ignore "outside chatter" and "just to look at the books."' Which then raises the question of the incestuous bubble world of writers, publishers and reviewers loosing sight of whats good and whats written by their pretentious friends: How many actual good books slip through the system because of this?

Ok, its schadenfreude too.