The Corrections

The Corrections was not Jonathan Franzen’s first novel, but it was his breakthrough work, netting him both a wide readership and critical praise. Franzen has frequently written and spoken about his desire to produce work that is sweeping and ambitious but also readable and entertaining. He believes that a writer has an obligation to their readers to not produce work that is overly obscure or difficult. At the same time, Franzen’s influences are highbrow and literary, even experimental. He has mentioned Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon as influences, both writers of systems novels: novels that attempt to explicate underground sweeping forces in modern life. Franzen is also influenced by European writers and intellectuals, such as the Austrian writer Karl Kraus, about whom he has written a book (The Kraus Project, published in 2013).

The Corrections addresses chemistry, engineering, and finance at length, much like the systems novels of Franzen’s forebears. At the same time, the central material in The Corrections is domestic and autobiographical. Franzen himself grew up in the Midwest, and Alfred and Enid are arguably exaggerated versions of his own parents. His father, like Alfred, was an engineer, while his mother, like Enid, was a homemaker; in a 2010 interview with The Paris Review, Franzen spoke of his mother as being overbearingly concerned, as Enid is, with appearances and propriety. While none of the Lambert children bear a direct resemblance to Franzen, he has expressed a loving and ambivalent relationship toward his place of birth that is similar to theirs.

Of all the Lambert children, it is perhaps Chip who outwardly resembles Franzen the most. Chip is, as Alfred says, “an intellectual,” but a frustrated, thwarted one (550). For much of the novel, he is unable to find any solace, material or otherwise, in his intellect and learning. He feels such a pressure to succeed and to sell himself, and is so adrift in the American late-capitalist landscape, that he can only lampoon his intellect. He tries and fails repeatedly to sell a turgid and pretentious screenplay, then falls into a more lucrative but much more precarious position: defrauding American investors as a Lithuanian resident. In his new position, Chip at first feels a strange relief, not only that of escaping his country and circumstances but also that of openly being a confidence man. Compared to the contortions he has put himself through in trying to vulgarize his intellect, his new position feels surprisingly straightforward and honest.

Chip’s floundering is a comic dramatization of the difficulty of being a serious person in an unserious world. Toward the end of his Lithuanian adventure, he has a sudden realization about his screenplay: He understands that it is “a thriller where he should have written farce” (534). This understanding marks the beginning of a new maturity for Chip; while we never learn what becomes of his screenplay, he does move back to the Midwest, marry, and become a more responsible son. Chip’s journeys out in the world can be seen as analogous to those of Franzen as a writer; The Corrections is a serious but farcical novel, one that touches on Franzen’s Midwestern upbringing and comes after earlier thriller-centric works that were less warmly received.