The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen is a book I cannot remember why I selected, but it seemed to me at the time like the author was particularly good. I think it had something to do with the National Book Award.
Started: 5/22/2020
Completed: 5/24/2020
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: National Book Award?
Review:
This is a carefully crafted story with insights into how it might feel to suffer from dementia. It is also about how people fool themselves and others. It is rife with mistakes that people could make and rife with patterns of mistakes that people can fool themselves into making. The story is told from multiple points of view that occasionally overlap.
It feels like this is a vignette in a much larger story that starts well before the book does and goes on well after. That makes sense. The anchor to the story line is an aging father and grandfather who starts on the edge of dementia (though flash backs show a fully lucid individual, as one would expect) and ends with his being in full dementia. This is not, really, however a story about his dementia, but more a story about how everyone around him changes during his struggle with reality.
I was not moved by the story and, though it was well told, have some trouble recommending it. I didn't gain any insight from it and tale is overall a little sad.
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