The Corrections
The Lambert family is falling apart, and so is the 20th century. Franzen's 2001 novel revived the social novel in America at a moment when critics had declared it dead. Each family member gets their own register of failure. Won the National Book Award, landed on the cover of TIME, ignited a public argument about literary ambition that still hasn't ended.
Chip's Lithuanian caper is cartoon satire grafted onto a domestic tragedy, and the graft never takes. Franzen condescends to the people he anatomizes; Enid and Alfred receive pity, rarely respect. Every set-piece announces its own brilliance, up to and including a hallucinated talking turd. Smart throughout, and pleased with itself in ways nothing in it corrects.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
