The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen follows the Lambert family dynamic as Christmas time fast approaches. This novel is an ideal read if you dread connecting with your family during the holidays...or really any other time. Alfred and Enid are an older Midwestern couple with three adult children: Chip, Denise and Gary. The story is that of a culture clash; 3 individuals trying to escape from their parents and the suffocating Midwest culture they grew up in. Each character has their own way of not just self medicating, but self correcting - working to become less like their parents, as an almost last ditch effort to be happy with themselves.
Enid and Alfred begin this wild symphony of characters. Franzen's portrayal of an older Midwest couple is guaranteed to eerily remind you of a real life couple you know yourself. Enid is incessant in a way that only a Midwestern mother can be; her constant disapproval stemming from the stubborn belief that things should be a certain way and any deviation from this way is wrong. This obsession with being right all the time is the heart of this book, it broaches the idea that we spend so much time correcting ourselves and others, that we don't even bother to enjoy life any longer. Alfred, who formally used his job on the railroad to work himself into a state of constant distraction, is now quite retired and quite sick. Franzen employs these two parents as a rallying point that their children proceed to flee from.
Chip, a New York College professor, largely regards himself as a failure. He fled to New York as an intellectual where he continues to constantly indite the American Culture. As Chip's life seems to crash down around him, he loses track of his sharp critiques in favor of a eat or be eaten survival mode that ends up taking him from New York, to Lithuania and back to good ole' St. Jude in the Midwest. Gary, the most responsible of the three siblings, battles with depression and his creeping subconscious that seems to be forcing him to be more like his father. Despite all his efforts Gary is alarmingly similar to his father, but with every refusal, he dives further into a guilty depressive state. Gary sees things in the most literal sense, a trait reminiscent of his Midwestern parents, which puts him at odds with his own wife and children - something he must continue to fight at all costs. Denise is the youngest of the Lambert's and is by far the most bruised character. In a constant struggle with her sexuality and an almost crippling self consciousness we watch Denise crash through life too afraid to settle for fear of her life being a perpetual wrong move. Her battle is one faced all too many times by young people that her section of the novel alone makes it a must read by all.
The novel culminates at Christmas in St. Jude, where Enid has insisted that she host and that all her children be in attendance. Every character seems to have their own internal language and the settings are so incredibly interesting. As painful as it is to get to know every Lambert, you watch them interact with individuals that are dealing in the face of infinitely worse family lives than them and you begin to wonder if their constant escapism isn't their own worst enemy. I'll let you read it and determine if the character's make any lasting change by the end of the novel, but one thing is for sure; The Corrections forces us to take a hard look at why we believe ourselves to be such fantastic failures at every turn in our lives.
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