Freedom (Franzen novel)

Last updated

Freedom
Jonathan-franzen-freedom.jpg
First edition cover
Author Jonathan Franzen
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date
August 31, 2010
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages576
ISBN 0-374-15846-0
813.54
LC Class PS3556.R352
Preceded by The Corrections  
Followed by Purity  

Freedom is a 2010 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Freedom received general acclaim from book critics, was ranked one of the best books of 2010 by several publications, [1] [2] and called by some critics the "Great American Novel". [3] In 2022, it was announced that Freedom would be adapted for television. [4]

Contents

The novel follows the lives of the Berglund family, particularly the parents Patty and Walter, as their lives develop and their happiness eventually falls apart. Important to their story is a college friend of Walter's and successful rock musician, Richard Katz, who has an affair with Patty. Walter and Patty's son, Joey, also goes through his own coming-of-age challenges.

Franzen began working on the novel in 2001, following his successful novel The Corrections . The title of the novel was an artifact of his book proposal, where he wanted to write a novel that freed him from the constraints of his previous work. The cover of many editions of the novel includes a cerulean warbler, a songbird, for which Walter works to create an environmental preserve.

Plot

Good Neighbors

The novel opens with a brief look at the Berglund family during their time living in St. Paul, Minnesota, from the perspective of their nosy neighbors. One of the first families to move back into urban St. Paul after years of white flight, the Berglunds are portrayed as an ideal liberal middle-class family. Walter Berglund is a mild-mannered environmentalist lawyer, his wife Patty is a charming and youthful homemaker who cares for their two children, Jessica and Joey. The precocious Joey’s move to his girlfriend’s Republican family next door increasingly destabilizes Patty and Walter’s marriage. Years later, while the children are at college, the unhappy couple relocates to Washington, D.C.

Mistakes Were Made

The second section of the novel is a story-within-a-story, presented as an autobiography written by Patty at her therapist's suggestion. She recalls her youth as a star basketball player, her alienation from her busy parents and artistic siblings, and being raped. After receiving a varsity scholarship to the University of Minnesota, her disturbed friend, Eliza, draws her into contact with the attractive Macalester rocker Richard Katz and his kind-hearted, nerdy roommate, Walter Berglund.

After detaching herself from Eliza and suffering a career-ending injury, Patty unsuccessfully attempts to woo Richard. Upon failing, she settles down with Walter, who has been patiently courting her for a year. They marry and raise their family, however, Patty cannot forget her physical attraction to Richard. Twenty years after leaving college, Patty has a brief affair with Richard at the Berglunds' vacation house at an unnamed lake in Minnesota.

2004

The third section of the novel jumps to the early 2000s, and alternates in viewpoint among Richard, Joey, and Walter.

By 2004, a middle-aged Richard has finally found success as a minor indie rock star, with his breakthrough album Nameless Lake having been secretly inspired by his affair. Walter has started working for a coal-industry supported environmental organization, the Cerulean Mountain Trust, which aims to strip mine parts of West Virginia, eventually turning the denuded land into a cerulean warbler preserve. Walter attempts to enlist Richard in his anti-human overpopulation pet project, which he is funding with Cerulean Trust money. Richard notices that Walter’s assistant, Lalitha, is madly in love with Walter, and learns from Walter that his marriage with the depressed Patty is deteriorating.

After navigating many difficulties in establishing the warbler preserve, at the cost of his anti-Iraq War principles, the teetotaling Walter shares his first drink with Lalitha. He confesses his love for her and they kiss, but stop short of having sex. Now devoting himself to his newly named anti-overpopulation campaign, Free Space, Walter invites Richard to his home in Washington. Feigning interest in the campaign, Richard reaches out to Patty, imploring her to leave her husband and let Walter be happy. Patty refuses, and shows him the autobiography she wrote as therapy, attempting to convince him that she still loves Walter. After reading it, Richard leaves the manuscript on Walter’s desk. Walter finds the autobiography; enraged, he throws Patty out despite her pleas that she still loves him. She moves in with Richard, in Jersey City.

Meanwhile, the Berglunds’ estranged son, Joey, is at the University of Virginia. He blames his dissatisfaction there on the recent September 11 attacks. His attempts to break away from his childhood sweetheart, Connie, fail. However, at a Thanksgiving celebration with his wealthy roommate, Jonathan’s family in Northern Virginia, he is dazzled by his roommate’s beautiful sister, Jenna. Joey also becomes increasingly connected with Jonathan’s Zionist, neoconservative father, eventually getting a well-paid job with Kenny Bartles, an Iraq War-profiteering entrepreneur. Only after investing into Bartles’ lucrative DOD contract does Joey realize that Bartles intends to sell the Army obsolete trucks.

Connie struggles with depression in Joey’s absence. Upon reuniting with her, Joey impulsively elopes with Connie after she gives him her savings to invest in the subcontract. While on a trip to South America with Jenna, he has the opportunity to sleep with her, but he unexpectedly suffers impotence, realizing that Connie is his true love. His ensuing efforts to find truck parts in South America prove disastrous, and Bartles pressures Joey to ship defective truck parts to the Army. Feeling guilty, Joey speaks with his father about blowing the whistle; while he ultimately decides against it, his relationship with both parents improves.

With Patty gone, Walter and Lalitha become lovers. However, increasingly depressive after his separation from Patty, Walter loses his temper and rants against capitalism and overpopulation on live TV at the inauguration of the West Virginian body armor plant orchestrated by the Trust, making him an icon of the radical youth. Walter and Lalitha continue to organize Free Space without the Trust, which quickly devolves into a chaotic, radical echo-chamber. While on a road trip with Walter before the concert, Lalitha leaves early to manage the increasing destructiveness of the concert attendees, and is killed in a car crash.

Mistakes Were Made (Conclusion)

The penultimate section of the novel is a follow-up chapter to Patty's autobiography, written specifically for Walter. Patty reveals that she has not talked to Walter for six years. She lasted only several months living with Richard, aware of their long-term incompatibility.

Patty stays with college friends until her father is diagnosed with cancer. She travels home to reconnect with her family, and after her father’s death, settles fights about the inheritance. She settles down in Brooklyn, living alone and working as a teacher and coach at a private school. She relates that her children have both found professional success. Six years after she left Walter, Patty runs into Richard, who encourages her to get in touch with Walter, motivating her to write a concluding chapter to her autobiography.

Canterbridge Estates Lake

After Lalitha’s death, the severely depressed Walter retreats to his family’s lakeside house, where he turns into a misanthropic recluse, directing his anger especially at the inhabitants and bird-killing cats of Canterbridge Estates, a development that has sprouted on the other side of the lake. One day, Walter, who did not read the manuscript Patty sent him, finds her on the steps of the lakeside house. Despite his rage and confusion, he takes her back, and they slowly rekindle their relationship. Patty gains the admiration of Walter’s neighbors, but after one year of living together at the Lake, they move to Patty’s job, friends, and family in New York. According to Walter's wishes, the old lakeside house is turned into a fenced, cat-proof bird sanctuary, named in memory of Lalitha.

Development

After the critical acclaim and popular success of his third novel The Corrections in 2001, Franzen began work on his fourth full-length novel. When asked during an October 30, 2002, interview on Charlie Rose how far he was into writing the new novel, Franzen replied:

I'm about a year of frustration and confusion into it ... Y'know, I'm kind of down at the bottom of the submerged iceberg peering up for the surface of the water ... I don't have doubt about my ability to write a good book, but I have lots of doubt about what it's going to look like. [5]

Franzen went on to suggest that a basic story outline was in place, and that his writing of the new novel was like a "guerrilla war" approaching different aspects of the novel (alluding to characters, dialogue, plot development, etc.). [5] Franzen also agreed that he would avoid public appearances, saying that "getting some work done is the vacation" from the promotional work surrounding The Corrections and How To Be Alone. [5]

An excerpt entitled "Good Neighbors" appeared in the June 8 and 15, 2009, issues of The New Yorker . [6] The magazine published a second extract entitled "Agreeable" in the May 31, 2010, edition. [7]

On October 16, 2009, Franzen made an appearance alongside David Bezmozgis at the New Yorker Festival held in the Cedar Lake Theatre to read a portion of his forthcoming novel. [8] [9] Sam Allard, writing for North By Northwestern website covering the event, said that the "material from his new (reportedly massive) novel "was as buoyant and compelling as ever" and "marked by his familiar undercurrent of tragedy". [9] Franzen read "an extended clip from the second chapter". [9]

On March 12, 2010, details about the plot and content of Freedom were published in the Macmillan fall catalogue for 2010. [10]

In an interview with Dave Haslam on October 3, 2010, Franzen discussed why he had called the book Freedom:

The reason I slapped the word on the book proposal I sold three years ago without any clear idea of what kind of book it was going to be is that I wanted to write a book that would free me in some way. And I will say this about the abstract concept of 'freedom'; it's possible you are freer if you accept what you are and just get on with being the person you are, than if you maintain this kind of uncommitted I'm free-to-be-this, free-to-be-that, faux freedom. [11]

Franzen has stated the writing of Freedom was deeply impacted by the death of his close friend and fellow novelist David Foster Wallace. [12]

Reception

Freedom received general acclaim from book critics, particularly for its writing and characterization. Shortly before the book's release, Time magazine featured Franzen on its cover, describing him as a "Great American Novelist", making him the first author to appear on its cover in a decade. [13]

Sam Tanenhaus of The New York Times and Benjamin Alsup of Esquire believed it measured up to Franzen's previous novel, The Corrections. Tanenhaus called it a "masterpiece of American fiction", writing that it "[told] an engrossing story" and "[illuminated], through the steady radiance of its author's profound moral intelligence, the world we thought we knew." [14] Alsup called it a great American novel. [3] In The Millions , Garth Risk Hallberg argued that readers who enjoyed The Corrections would enjoy Freedom, writing that readers are "likely to come away from this novel moved in harder-to-fathom ways—and grateful for it." [15] An editor for Publishers Weekly wrote that it stood apart from most modern fiction because "Franzen tries to account for his often stridently unlikable characters and find where they (and we) went wrong, arriving at—incredibly—genuine hope." [16]

Benjamin Secher of The Telegraph called Franzen one of America's best living novelists, and Freedom the first great American novel of the "post-Obama era". [17] In The Guardian , Jonathan Jones called him "a literary genius" and wrote that Freedom stood on "a different plane from other contemporary fiction". [18]

Michiko Kakutani called the book "galvanic" and wrote that it showcased Franzen's talent as a storyteller and "his ability to throw open a big, Updikean picture window on American middle-class life." Kakutani also praised the novel's characterization, going on to call it a "compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times." [19] The Economist stated that the novel contained "fully imagined characters in a powerful narrative" and had "all its predecessor's power and none of its faults." [20]

Not all reviews were raving. Most lukewarm reviews praised the novel's prose, but believed the author's left-wing political stance was too obvious. Sam Anderson, in a review for New York magazine, thought the characterization was strong, but perceived the politics as sometimes too heavy-handed: "Franzen the crank—mighty detester of Twitter, ATVs, and housing developments" occasionally "overpower[s] Franzen the artist ... but if crankiness is the motor that powers Franzen's art, I'm perfectly willing to sit through some speeches." [21] Ron Charles of The Washington Post remarked that it lacked the wit and "[freshness]" of The Corrections. Charles praised Franzen's prose and called him "an extraordinary stylist", but questioned how many readers would settle for good writing as "sufficient compensation for what is sometimes a misanthropic slog." [22] Ruth Franklin of The New Republic believed the novel resembled a "soap opera" more than it did an epic, and that Franzen had forgotten "the greatest novels must ... offer ... profundity and pleasure." [23]

Alexander Nazaryan criticized its familiarity in the New York Daily News remarking that the author "can write about a gentrifying family in St. Paul. Or maybe in St. Louis. But that's about it." Nazaryan also didn't believe Franzen was joking when he suggested "being doomed as a novelist never to do anything but stories of Midwestern families." [24] Alan Cheuse of National Public Radio found the novel "[brilliant]" but not enjoyable, suggesting that "every line, every insight, seems covered with a light film of disdain. Franzen seems never to have met a normal, decent, struggling human being whom he didn't want to make us feel ever so slightly superior to. His book just has too much brightness and not enough color." [25] In a scathing review for The Atlantic , Brian Reynolds Myers called the book "juvenile" and "directionless", and filled with "mediocrities". [26]

Ross Douthat of First Things praised the "stretches of Freedom that read like a master class in how to write sympathetically about the kind of characters" with an abundance of freedom. Yet, Douthat concluded the novel was overlong, feeling the "impression that Franzen's talents are being wasted on his characters." [27]

Awards and endorsements

Freedom won the John Gardner Fiction Award. Additionally, it was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The American Library Association also named it a notable fiction of the 2010 publishing year.

Oprah Winfrey made Freedom her first book club selection of 2010, saying, "this book is a masterpiece." [28] [29] US President Barack Obama called it "terrific" after reading it over the summer. [30]

Adaptation

In July 2022, it was announced that Tomorrow Studios and Scott Free Productions would adapt Freedom as a television series. The script will be written by Melanie Marnich, which Franzen said was a "perfect choice." [4] Franzen, Marnich, and Ridley Scott will serve as executive producers for the series.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toni Morrison</span> American novelist, essayist and academic (1931–2019)

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Foster Wallace</span> American writer (1962–2008)

David Foster Wallace was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times's David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palisade, Minnesota</span> City in Minnesota, United States

Palisade is a city in Aitkin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 167 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Franzen</span> American writer

Jonathan Earl Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections, a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His novel Freedom (2010) garnered similar praise and led to an appearance on the cover of Time magazine alongside the headline "Great American Novelist". Franzen's latest novel Crossroads was published in 2021, and is the first in a projected trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Gaddis</span> American novelist

William Thomas Gaddis, Jr. was an American novelist. The first and longest of his five novels, The Recognitions, was named one of TIME magazine's 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005 and two others, J R and A Frolic of His Own, won the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. A collection of his essays was published posthumously as The Rush for Second Place (2002). The Letters of William Gaddis was published by Dalkey Archive Press in February 2013.

<i>Something Happened</i> 1974 novel by Joseph Heller

Something Happened is Joseph Heller's second novel. Its main character and narrator is Bob Slocum, a businessman who engages in a stream of consciousness narrative about his job, his family, his childhood, his sexual escapades, and his own psyche. Although Something Happened failed to achieve the level of renown that Catch-22 did, it has since developed a cult following, with some considering it one of Heller's finest works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Smiley</span> American novelist

Jane Smiley is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oprah's Book Club</span> Talk show segment of books chosen by Oprah Winfrey

Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the American talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new book, usually a novel, for viewers to read and discuss each month. In total, the club recommended 70 books during its 15 years.

The term middlebrow describes middlebrow art, which is easily accessible art, usually popular literature, and middlebrow people who use the arts to acquire the social capital of "culture and class" and thus a good reputation. First used in the British satire magazine Punch in 1925, the term middlebrow is the intellectual, intermediary brow between the highbrow and the lowbrow forms of culture; the terms highbrow and lowbrow are borrowed from the pseudoscience of phrenology.

<i>How to Be Alone</i> (book) Book by Jonathan Franzen

How to Be Alone is a 2002 book collecting fourteen essays by American writer Jonathan Franzen.

<i>The Laughing Policeman</i> (novel) Swedish novel by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

The Laughing Policeman is a mystery novel by the Swedish writing duo Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, originally published in Sweden in 1968 as Den skrattande polisen and translated into English in 1970. It is the fourth of ten novels featuring police detective Martin Beck.

Jennifer Weiner is an American writer, television producer, and journalist. She is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, published in 2001, was Good in Bed. Her novel In Her Shoes (2002) was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, and Shirley MacLaine.

Sam Tanenhaus is an American historian, biographer, and journalist. He currently is a writer for Prospect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oprah Winfrey</span> American talk show host, actress, producer, and author (born 1954)

Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she was the richest African-American of the 20th century and was once the world's only black billionaire. By 2007, she was often ranked as the most influential woman in the world.

<i>The Corrections</i> 2001 novel by Jonathan Franzen

The Corrections is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-20th century to "one last Christmas" together near the turn of the millennium. The novel was awarded the National Book Award in 2001 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002.

"Why Bother?", originally published as "Perchance to Dream: In the Age of Images, a Reason to Write Novels", is a literary essay by American novelist Jonathan Franzen. It is often referred to as "The Harper's Essay". First published in the April 1996 issue of Harper's magazine, the essay concerns the persistence of reading within the context of technological growth and distraction. Franzen recounts his meditations on the state and possibility of the novel form, often against the backdrop of his personal experience, eventually concluding that the novel still has potential cultural agency in the United States, and often gains it by paradoxical drives of both culture and author.

"Mr. Difficult", subtitled "William Gaddis and the problem of hard-to-read books", is a 2002 essay by Jonathan Franzen that appeared in the 9/30/2002 issue of The New Yorker. It was reprinted in the paperback edition of How to Be Alone without the subtitle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nell Zink</span> US writer and media scholar

Helen "Nell" Louise Zink is an American writer living in Germany. After being a long term penpal of Avner Shats, she came to prominence in her fifties with the help of Jonathan Franzen and her novel, Mislaid, was longlisted for the National Book Award. Her debut The Wallcreeper was released in the United States by the independent press Dorothy and named one of 100 notable books of 2014 by The New York Times, as was Mislaid. Zink then released Nicotine, Private Novelist and Doxology through Ecco Press. In 2022 she published Avalon, again a New York Times notable book, with Alfred A. Knopf.

<i>Purity</i> (novel) English-language novel by Franzen, published in 2015

Purity is a novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. His fifth novel, it was published on 1 September 2015 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

<i>Crossroads</i> (novel) 2021 novel by Jonathan Franzen

Crossroads: A Novel is the sixth novel by American author Jonathan Franzen, published on October 5, 2021. It is a family saga set during the 1970s and centers on the Hildebrandt family in the fictional small town of New Prospect, Illinois. It was first announced on November 13, 2020, by Franzen's publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

References

  1. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2010". The New York Times . December 2010. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ Various (November 14, 2010). "Best books of the year: 2010 | feature". The Guardian. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Alsup, Benjamin (August 11, 2010). "Jonathan Franzen Will Go Down Swinging". Esquire. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  4. 1 2 Schaub, Michael (July 14, 2022). "Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom' To Be Adapted for TV". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 "An interview with Jonathan Franzen" Archived March 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , October 30, 2002, interview on Charlie Rose Show
  6. ↑ "Good Neighbors", The New Yorker , June 2009.
  7. ↑ Frantzen, Jonathan (May 31, 2010). "Agreeable". The New Yorker . Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  8. ↑ Crouch, Ian (October 16, 2009). "Jonathan Franzen and David Bezmozgis Imagine Women". The New Yorker . Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  9. 1 2 3 Allard, Sam (November 3, 2009). "The Frantzen Interface". North by Northwestern. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  10. ↑ Farrar, Straus and Giraux Catalogue - September to December 2010 (PDF). Macmillan. 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 24, 2012.
  11. ↑ Haslam, D. "Interviews". davehaslam.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  12. ↑ Franzen, Jonathan (October 2, 2015). "Jonathan Franzen: 'Modern life has become extremely distracting'". The Guardian.
  13. ↑ "Great American Novelist". Time . August 23, 2010.
  14. ↑ Book review Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times , August 29, 2010
  15. ↑ Hallberg, Garth Risk (August 24, 2010). "Tough Love: A Review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom". The Millions. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  16. ↑ "PW's Starred Review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom". Publishers Weekly. July 2, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  17. ↑ Secher, Benjamin (August 20, 2010). "Jonathan Franzen: One of America's Greatest Living Novelists". The Telegraph. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  18. ↑ Jones, Jonathan (August 20, 2010). "Jonathan Franzen's Freedom: the novel of the century". The Telegraph. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  19. ↑ Kakutani, Michiko (August 15, 2010). "Jonathan Franzen's Freedom Follows Family's Quest". The New York Times.
  20. ↑ "The stuff of life". The Economist. August 26, 2010.
  21. ↑ Anderson, Sam (August 12, 2010). "The Precisionist: Jonathan Franzen's Freedom illustrates, crankily, the joys of the old-timey literary novel". New York . Retrieved August 18, 2010.
  22. ↑ Charles, Ron (August 25, 2010). "Jonathan Franzen's new novel, "Freedom," reviewed by Ron Charles". The Washington Post.
  23. ↑ Franklin, Ruth (September 23, 2010). "Impact Man". The New Republic.
  24. ↑ Nazaryan, A (December 6, 2010). "Jonathan Franzen, 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' Book Club and the rise of the Frustrated White Male". New York Daily News. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  25. ↑ Cheuse, A (August 5, 2010). "Book Review: Jonathan Franzen's Freedom". National Public Radio . Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  26. ↑ Smaller Than Life B. R. Myers, The Atlantic , October 2010 Archived January 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved October 15, 2011).
  27. ↑ Douthat, Ross (November 2010). "The Girl with the Franzen Tattoo: A review of Freedom by Jonathan Franzen". First Things. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  28. ↑ Kellogg, Carolyn (September 18, 2010). "Oprah's book club christens Franzen's Freedom". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on September 5, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2010.
  29. ↑ "Oprah's Book Club 2010 Selection". oprah.com. Retrieved September 18, 2010.
  30. ↑ "Vacationing Obama Buys Franzen Book 'Freedom'". PolitiFi.com. August 20, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2011.

Further reading

In-depth studies and reviews

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.