August 17, 2015
Delivering a solid but less than revelatory critical biography of “the best-known American novelist of his generation,” Weinstein (Becoming Faulkner) begins by depicting Franzen as the son of “earnest and ambitious parents” in the Midwest. The author covers Franzen’s early years at Swarthmore, time as a Fulbright scholar in Berlin, and ambitious yet little-noticed early novels The Twenty-Seventh City and Strong Motion, before coming to the spectacularly successful The Corrections and Freedom. Though clear and entertaining, the book falls into clichéd prose; when discussing the entrance to a challenging university honors program, Weinstein writes that “Franzen heard and heeded the call.” In Franzen’s early fiction, Weinstein explains, rage was the main emotional note, and Franzen would only later see that his true style and talent lay in sympathetically capturing the intricacy and complexity of family drama. The book also delves into Franzen’s essays, focusing on “Mr. Difficult,” which asserts that writers fall into two categories (“Status,” who write complex but prestigious novels, and “Contract,” who write more accessible, less ambitious books) and expresses Franzen’s wish to encompass both. According to Weinstein, “my book centers on the impossibility of Franzen’s negotiating seamlessly both these positions.” Although eminently readable and at times enlightening, Weinstein’s book adds little new information about the well-known Franzen. 8 color illus.