People I know are talking about “Patty” and “Walter” as if they were their new best friends. They’ve been reading Freedom, the new novel from Jonathan Franzen, and arguing over whether it’s a Great American Novel. I’m not reading it anytime soon. I didn’t like Franzen’s The Corrections — in the minority, I know — and nothing I’ve read in the rave reviews of Freedom makes me think I’m going to like Patty and Walter any more than the dysfunctional Lamberts of Corrections.
Besides, I’m too busy reading lists of forthcoming books and thanking my lucky stars I no longer have to compile one. Season preview was one of the most labor-intensive and least-rewarding parts of my former life as a book critic, especially before publishing websites and blogs and on-line bookstores. The fall catalogs would start arriving in spring before the huge annual book convention now known as BookExpo (ABA to us veterans), a marathon of meetings with publicists to go over the coming-soon lists and interviews with writers with new books. It was books for breakfast, lunch, dinner and into the night. I loved almost every minute of it, except when I had to file stories from the West Coast to meet East Coast deadlines, and I’d find myself talking to some lonely computer tech about why my copy wasn’t getting through. And that was just the preview story in June before the real season preview story in late August and the all-important list to be checked and double-checked in case I overlooked Updike or the next would-be Updike.
Enough nostalgia. Now on this Labor Day, I am rather lazily looking at other people’s lists, mentally noting what I want to add to my already towering TBR stack. Oh, goody, I think, spotting a new Ruth Rendell, a John le Carre, a Dennis Lehane. Oh, I didn’t know Julia Glass had a new novel. Janet Evanovitch, of course. David Sedaris! Yes! No! Stop! I’m not going to make a list.
Nope, I’m going to be surprised when I walk in a bookstore or receive a galley in the mail or happen on a blog announcing “Five Mysteries Not to Miss.” I’m going to stop reading about books not here yet and start reading the ones piled by the sofa, desk, bed or already nooked in my e-reader. Besides, the way my memory is these days, I’m likely to forget about a book coming in a couple of months. So, remind me, please, I really do want to read Nora Ephron’s new collection of humorous essays, I Remember Nothing. Think it comes out in November.
On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever 
i read “freedom” and i’m here to tell you it’s a fine book but not a masterpiece. it reminded me of “bonfire of the vanities” in the way that it tells the story of a changing culture through the lives of characters–and not terribly appealing characters, either. and the ending comes out of nowhere.
we splurged and went to our neighborhood bookstore yesterday–bought “the warmth of other suns,” “i curse the river of time,” “skippy dies,” “sneaky sheep” (a picture book written by a woman in duluth), “homer & langley” and, partly because it was in the window, and partly because i ran out of free copies, “news to me.”
a fun shopping trip!
I actually enjoyed The Corrections but not enough to get me in a lather over this one. I will probably read it eventually (or not). I can’t spend too much time on the upcoming books because I can’t even read the ones that came out a year ago. I did get very excited when I heard there is a new Benjamen Black coming in October (the third of the Quirk series). Now THAT I will chase down.
Sandy, I’m confused. The third Quirke, Elegy for April, came out this past spring. It’s still on my TBR list. I liked Christine Falls and The Silver Swan, and pretty much everything Banville writes under any name.
Nancy,
You gave me two GREAT pieces of advice as a book reviewer/blogger:
1. I remember a column you wrote for the Orlando Sentinel that said you didn`t like “The Corrections” by Franzen & it was OK NOT to like a best seller! Made me feel good for NOT liking it either, as well as not liking the “Da Vinci Code”. Everyone`s entitled to her opinion.
2. Give a book 30 pages or 30 minutes, whatever comes first. Truer words were never spoken! There`s too many books & not enough time. Thankfully, someone warned me about the SLOW start to the Stieg Larsson “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy or I never would have read it. It took me over 100 pages to get into that, but it was worth it.
Nancy, I understand Franzen had a crowd of 1,000 at his keynote for the Decatur Book Festival Friday night. The festival itself had amazing crowds and energy. As a writer, I’m thrilled a novelist can generate this kind of excitement and enthusiasm for the written word. As a female novelist who hasn’t been reviewed by the NYT in more than a decade, I think it would be nice if women’s novels about family life were taken as seriously as Franzen’s. Just sayin…
Mary Kay, couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve been following the whole Jodi Picoult/Jenn Weiner thing on web, Twitter, etc. I think my favorite comment was from someone who said, “It’s chick lit because I’m a chick and I read it.”
Have you read Allegra Goodman’s The Cookbook Collector? May have been my favorite of the summer w/its winning characters, lovely writing, lit references, descriptions of books, houses, food — and a wonderful evocation of the dot.com boom/boost culture. Oh, and that cover! I think I’m going to have to buy the real book because, gulp, the e-book version is not enough. I want this on my shelves!
I liked your post here. I almost never buy books new anymore, unfortunately, because I can’t afford it. I do read them from the library and I love the used book store. I have a list of books to read a mile high.
You mentioned Evanovitch in your article. I used to LOVE her Plum novels. I laughed and laughed. The last few have been nowhere near the excellence of the first few. I haven’t even read #16.
Plum series was peachy, but I haven’t read 15 or 16. Think new Wicked Appetites is an interval book, like Plum Love, which was cute
Nancy, very good to see you stand up for contrary opinions — I didn’t care for The Corrections, either, and decided I’d rather not review it if reviewing it meant I had to read the whole damned boring thing, which, of course, it did. I am marching my way through Freedom, though, just so I can get my opinion down somewhere on the record. I was fascinated by Patty for quite a while there, but now the narrative has grown more tiresome than a late John Irving novel (and in the same way), and it’s a trudge from here on out. Sam Tanenhaus aside (and Tom Wolfe, for that matter), there’s a reason the straightforward realistic novel has fallen out of literary fashion. It was threadbare and tired before James Joyce first put pen to paper. My recent faves: Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart, and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell, both novels that push the envelope (though in different directions).
Chauncey, I really like David Mitchell but haven’t read the new one or Super Sad yet. Started Skippy Dies and will save for later. Just not in the mood. Belated thanks for telling me about China Mieville’s City in the City last year. Excellent!
And good luck w/Franzen. I continue to exercise my freedom not to read Freedom.