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The Corrections ::
I don’t imagine Oprah and I agree on much, especially when it comes to the definition of good literature. And honestly, there are very few things I dread more than the prospect of having a book discussion with a group of her die-hard fans. But when I read The Corrections, I began to rethink, ever so slightly, my prejudices against the tastes of the average Daytime Talk Show crowd.
See, here’s a book that has all of the things that I’ve missed in the other novels I’ve read lately: flowing language that’s dense and engrossing, characters who I find sad, funny, and fully human, and a sweeping narrative that spans over three decades. And what drives the story is a family that’s getting together for one last Christmas at the parents' home in the Midwest. (Though it is never explicitly stated by any of the characters, this is the last Christmas because the family is disintegrating -- though I could never quite tell if there was a particularly definitive family to begin with.) All three of the children come back from their lives on the East Coast -- of course, all of them are are mired in some dysfunction or another -- to spend one last holiday with their family, which provides no help, not even a small amount of solace for them. As the holiday season approaches, each of the children, in their own way, become more emotionally desperate, until it seems that all of them will explode if they ever actually come into contact with one another.
The most fascinating aspect of this novel is that it seems to be driven by five characters who are I find very identifiable. They are a part of my time, of my generation, and the nature of their suffering is very peculiar to the world in which I find myself. To see that world presented as art is about as satisfying a discovery as I can think of.
I read this one pretty quickly -- 100 pages per day for five and a half days -- which suggests that I liked it. A lot. Not only that, but I had a pretty significant feeling of loss when I finished. I hope you read it sometime soon, and that you enjoy it as much as I did. No matter what Oprah had to say about it.
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