“The Corrections National Book Award Winner 2001 The Corrections was mildly entertaining. Frantzen definitely a smart, engaging, and talented writer, but I guess I just have a problem with reading about characters I don't like, living lives that are uninteresting. Also, Frantzen's writing seems a bit experimental at times in a way that didn't seem quite work--for instance, the section about Alfred with the Schopenhauer headings and the brief flurry of emails between Denise and Chip. Frantzen's book is touted for being a humorous yet heart-breaking look at life. At times it was humorous, but mostly in a crass, scatological sense. But here's what I really didn't like about the book: 1) Every member of the Lambert family is singularly concerned with themselves. When we get a glimpse into their world and into their thoughts, they think only selfish thoughts: 1) they have no real altruism or concern for anyone else. 2) All the Lamberts have these fairly bizarre, dominating sexual hang-ups. So is this the view that Frantzen thinks we should have of the world? That we're all drive primarily by animalistic sex drives and are other thoughts are almost entirely self aggrandizing. I don't buy into this world view. Granted, the tiny bit of character development that occurred consisted of a slight movement from this worldview (i.e., Denise realizes that her Dad has overlooked her sexual indiscretions and Chip for reasons even he doesn't understand help get his parents get through his dad's dementia). But overall the development is flat and the reader left with the conclusion that life is bleak.”
ACE wrote this review Saturday, February 2, 2013.
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