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Review
'His discreetly devastating comic timing derives from the tension between the optimism of his ambition and the reality of the attempts to deal with the experiences that have marked his career as one America's best novelist and essayist.' Times
'Franzen's memoir is cleverly written and often fun to read…He's funny and self deprecating…' Sunday Telegraph
‘Wonderful and supremely personal…' Time Magazine
'Reading such honest, awkward, tender pieces as these, the socially isolated individual may feel that little bit less lonely.' New Statesman.
'The close of this book is almost miraculous; we are reminded that Franzen, at his best, can write like a dream.' FT Magazine
Independent
'deft and witty memoir.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In his book How To Be Alone, Jonathan Franzen wrote about many things, including himself. In this new book, Franzen concentrates almost entirely on himself. While a lot of what he says is worth saying, the general trajectory is a kind of memoir - specifically a writer's memoir and since writers spend most of their time sitting in a room alone, writing, they don't have much of a claim to being unique, unusual or especially entertaining. Unfortunately, when he is writing about his upbringing, his friendships, his hobbies, etc., Franzen falls into the mildly interesting category.
In How To Be Alone Franzen wrote about things, people, cities, lives, in a way that made everything he told us about interesting - and often in a way that went beyond that and on into fascination. His piece about the Chicago postal service was a case in point. Who would have thought he could make it come alive, could make it absolutely riveting? Well he did. In this book he is interesting, full-stop. It just doesn't take off into the brilliance I had come to expect from How To Be Alone, unfortunately. Inevitably this is disappointing and makes me wish he'd written The Discomfort Zone first, I would definitely have read more of his work and would thus be just discovering How To Be Alone, and I'd be a lot happier. He is a brilliant writer - especially as a novelist. Let's hope this book means he's got intense self-absorption out of his system.
In How To Be Alone Franzen wrote about things, people, cities, lives, in a way that made everything he told us about interesting - and often in a way that went beyond that and on into fascination. His piece about the Chicago postal service was a case in point. Who would have thought he could make it come alive, could make it absolutely riveting? Well he did. In this book he is interesting, full-stop. It just doesn't take off into the brilliance I had come to expect from How To Be Alone, unfortunately. Inevitably this is disappointing and makes me wish he'd written The Discomfort Zone first, I would definitely have read more of his work and would thus be just discovering How To Be Alone, and I'd be a lot happier. He is a brilliant writer - especially as a novelist. Let's hope this book means he's got intense self-absorption out of his system.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Discomfort Zone follows naturally from Jonathan Franzen's 2001 bestseller The Corrections. Sure, that was fiction and this is autobiography, but many of the themes and settings of everyday life remain the same. It chronicles the author's growth from a "small and fundamentally ridiculous person" to the confidently insecure writer he has become. He casts his scope both inwards and out, linking his own life to the socio-political history of the last fifty years. His story is both personal and universal.
It is a good read, and what we are left with is a picture of everyday life in all its fabulous banality: a life which Franzen loves and hates in alternating measure but which is an inextricable part of himself and his fiction.
It is a good read, and what we are left with is a picture of everyday life in all its fabulous banality: a life which Franzen loves and hates in alternating measure but which is an inextricable part of himself and his fiction.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found this books wholly enjoyable and not nearly long enough - except for the last chapter which major on birding.
This memoir in fact covers: the death of Franzen's mother and sale of the family home (Franzen gets this wrong); quarrels in the Franzen household and the career of Schulz, creator of Peanuts; the religious and personal development scene at Franzen's school; practical jokes at Franzen's school; Franzen's experience of German (in which he majored) and love life; Franzen's love life (continued) and his interest in the environment and in birding.
The most thought provoking section is about Schulz. Franzen thinks Schulz suffered because he was an artist, ie he was not an artist because he suffered. He could have toughed out a normal life, just as he did his military service. This is well worth pondering - as is the question how the impulse comes to people (like Franzen) to make other people laugh.
This memoir is both touching and comic. Strongly recommended.
This memoir in fact covers: the death of Franzen's mother and sale of the family home (Franzen gets this wrong); quarrels in the Franzen household and the career of Schulz, creator of Peanuts; the religious and personal development scene at Franzen's school; practical jokes at Franzen's school; Franzen's experience of German (in which he majored) and love life; Franzen's love life (continued) and his interest in the environment and in birding.
The most thought provoking section is about Schulz. Franzen thinks Schulz suffered because he was an artist, ie he was not an artist because he suffered. He could have toughed out a normal life, just as he did his military service. This is well worth pondering - as is the question how the impulse comes to people (like Franzen) to make other people laugh.
This memoir is both touching and comic. Strongly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Movingly written personal memoir
I found this book to be unusually, personal, honest and moving - and of course extremely well written. Read more
Published 9 months ago by John M. Cruickshank Owen
Disappointed
I was disappointed with this memoir because Jonathan Franzen spent too long on teenage escapades which gave no insight into his development, they were just hi-jink events. Read more
Published 20 months ago by P. Bird
interesting, but not mind-blowing
Well I think The Corrections is probably my favourite novel of the last 10 years, so was curious to read this. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2010 by JamieJ
Thoroughly enjoyable and poignant
For many readers who enjoyed the dark comedy of the award-winning `Corrections', this curious amalgam of memoir and social commentary is the necessary literary appetizer to... Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2007 by G. G. Durante
An Interesting Read
The Discomfort Zone follows naturally from Jonathan Franzen's 2001 bestseller The Corrections. Sure, that was fiction and this is autobiography, but many of the themes and... Read more
Published on 1 April 2007 by Sam J. Ruddock
Witty memoirs
The Discomfort Zone is Franzen's memoirs of his adolescence. Set in the 1970s we hear about his family life and share personal stories with him. Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2007 by kehs
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