Rating: 
Summary: insight into Franzen
Review: This collection of essay includes ruminations by Franzen on topics as diverse as cigarettes, prisons, and the demise of serious literature.
What I liked about it was the variety of issues covered and the insight it provided into Franzen as a person and they way he thinks. The most masterful essay comes first, a spectacularly constructed and delivered piece on Franzen's father's struggle with Alzheimer's.
What I found disappointing was the didactic tone of some of the essays and the way Franzen occasionally lost focus, spiraling off onto tangents that I didn't find particularly revelatory or interesting. Some of the essays, such as one on privacy and another called the "Harper's Essay" did not catch my attention or interest at all. They spiraled in so many directions that I lost track of the main point. Whether it might have been easier to follow by reading (I listened to the audio CDs), I don't know.
In the end, I was interested in what he had to say, but only found portions compelling.
Rating: 
Summary: Franzen doesn't deserve this much criticism...
Review: Well, I don't fully understand all of the criticism that is thrown Franzen's way. I really engaged with this book and found the essays interesting, well-written and thought-provoking. All-in-all, Franzen's insights into reading culture, writing, memory and American society were right on the money for me. I think those who don't like this book would be more at home with Newsweek and Time magazine and find USA Today sufficient for their daily news.Criticism of Franzen as "elitist" is over-stated. If you, like I, are one of those "isolates" who starts reading early in life, you will likely find sympathy with Franzen's perspective as I did. I think "elitist" is a word thrown at those who read and think like Franzen by those who don't. I don't believe the book is elitist so much as representative of a different class of readers in American society who are a little more isolated from American consumer culture and generally find the consumer-driven, media-saturated, conformist version of America unsettling to say the least.
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