http://conversationalreading.com/on-taste-and-lists-and-the-corrections/ Since 2004. The blog of the critic, writer, and editor, Scott Esposito Wed, 23 May 2012 13:19:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 http://conversationalreading.com/on-taste-and-lists-and-the-corrections/#comment-8046 Alvy Singer Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:02:48 +0000 http://conversationalreading.com/wordpress/2009/10/on-taste-and-lists-and-the-corrections.html#comment-8046 From the eyes of a modest spanish blogger, the decision of choosing Franzen's novel over, let's say, Bolaño, Bellatín or...Against the Day...is confusing. One page, yes, one page, of Against the Day is masterful, perfect, strange and visionary at the same time. Franzen has made a great novel, but more of a remix than a masterwork. I admire The Corrections, but it's nothing more than applying Flaubertian schemes to the Family Theme (a theme that it's eternal to american literature) with Salingerian echoes and some good readings to Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. It's great, but it isn't as deep as it seems. It's easier, in my opinion. From the eyes of a modest spanish blogger, the decision of choosing Franzen’s novel over, let’s say, Bolaño, Bellatín or…Against the Day…is confusing. One page, yes, one page, of Against the Day is masterful, perfect, strange and visionary at the same time. Franzen has made a great novel, but more of a remix than a masterwork. I admire The Corrections, but it’s nothing more than applying Flaubertian schemes to the Family Theme (a theme that it’s eternal to american literature) with Salingerian echoes and some good readings to Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. It’s great, but it isn’t as deep as it seems. It’s easier, in my opinion.

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