So I gave up 39.8% of the way through Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. One of few books I can say I’ve given up on. It might help if I could skip ahead, but that’s really hard to do well in an audio book. Especially since I generally listen while on my commute and I’m driving.
The characters are flat. And there is a part of me that detests them because I’m afraid someone out there is like that. The first third of the book focuses on Patty – through her college & married life. She struggles with anxiety, depression, and alcoholism – and at 40% of the way through you have a hit (since it’s written like her autobiography) that she is aware of it “now” – whenever now is. But then, a chapter or two before I stopped she stopped being the narrator (I think). It switched to her husband’s best friend Richard.
Thus far both of them are looking at the third character,Walter – Patty’s husband & Richard’s best friend – with this weird lens of him being a supportive character but somehow also the glue that holds the three of them together and frankly the only pseudo-mentally-stable of the three. This switch is where I really just fell off the bandwagon (pun intended) and had to go find something else. I looked at my app and it said 38-something % and I went “shit. I thought Patty was the character and I feel like her arc is so close to done. I can’t sit through another arc or whatever this dude is doing. I have no idea what the plot is and no interest in these characters.”
Now, I will say that I had to read Prince of Tides in highschool and this books reminds me a lot of that. and I will say, I don’t tend to enjoy books that try to rip me up emotionally – I have enough stress in my life, I like my books to be more escapist. Freedom reminds me a little of Prince of Tides. Not like 100%, but that idea of exploring what made someone do something really messed up and emotionally manipulative and stupid… yeah, I think if Freedom is going anywhere it’s along those lines.
And the writing style was good. The semi-autobiographical tone of Patty’s story was interesting, with those flares of exposition into her own growth since the moment. The opening was my favorite part – it was a bunch of snippets of the gossip of the neighborhood about Patty and Walter and their son Joey. And Patty’s little breakdown and her evolution from “perfect mom” to “crazy neighbor” was well done in that format.
Overall, I have to give this a 2/5 for me – but I could see someone else really getting sucked in and enjoying it more than I did. I don’t want a story that makes me cry…
Dream by Day 