Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paulโthe gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walterโs dreams. Together with Walterโenvironmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family manโshe was doing her small part to build a better world.
But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katzโoutrรฉ rocker and Walterโs college best friend and rivalโstill doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become โa very different kind of neighbor,โ an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the streetโs attentive eyes?
In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedomโs characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.
Media Buzz
Studio 360 - March 30, 2013 Studio 360 - September 3, 2011 On Point - December 30, 2010 On Point - December 30, 2010 On Point - December 6, 2010 On Point - December 6, 2010 Oprah - December 6, 2010 PBS News Hour - October 12, 2010 Good Morning America - September 27, 2010 Oprah - September 17, 2010 Good Morning America - September 13, 2010 All Things Considered - September 12, 2010 Saturday Early Show - September 11, 2010 Studio 360 - September 11, 2010 Fresh Air - NPR - September 9, 2010 All Things Considered - September 4, 2010 All Things Considered - August 5, 2010
© 2003-2026