This interesting book was – in 2019 – voted 16th in a list of 100 best books of the 21st century so far by The Guardian newspaper. It was also, briefly, an Oprah Book Club Selection until Franzen expressed his discomfort with the selection and expressed concern that the Oprah connection would suggest that it’s a “women’s book” and discourage men from reading it (Wikipedia.org, 9/29/21). But the “sprawling, satirical family drama” earned a National Book Award and was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist.
As for me, I’d picked it up in the bookstore several times without buying it, until I finally took the opportunity to borrow it from the library. It has interesting characters, including Enid and Alfred Lambert, now married for fifty years. As empty-nesters, Enid is looking forward to freedom, to traveling, to spending time with the grandkids, but Alfred is struggling physically, and mentally, with Parkinson’s disease. Their kids, Gary, Chip, and Denise, are busy dealing with the challenges of their own lives and despite Enid’s dream of one more (probably the last) Christmas in the family home, it’s unclear if that can be accomplished or not.
There are recognizable feelings, motives, and desire in this bittersweet, but ultimately hopeful novel.