The Corrections

us about the book

yes so jonathan franzen so this was um this book came out it's it's it's you know like 20 something it's 20 years old but this is how he was first introduced to jonathan franzen i would say he's like a top american novelist um he's written four or five books the corrections was my introduction to him and i know if you've ever had books that you've read that after you read it you were like i don't want to reread this anytime soon because i want to kind of remember The feeling of like reading this and being so just of that.

And I think that's one of the things, too, like I've always enjoyed fiction.

I'm not a nonfiction person for whatever reason.

That's certainly not something we say in the UK.

But the only reason it stuck out with me is I'm currently reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, which is this kind of like epic American family drama saga that won the National Book Award for and stuff it's like a really fabled and i've been meaning to get to it for ages and uh in that the the main character's mother gives the phone over to her husband and it's their son calling she says don't just hang up um visit with him for a bit like you know as in yes him for a bit and i remember reading that thinking what the hell and then i literally that was like yesterday and then i watched this episode this morning and then heard this Is this something that's commonplace? Have you ever heard it in Texas?

Yeah, it is, you know, not everyday speech, but it's not uncommon to use the word visit.

And I will lean on your English prowess.

I don't know if it's gonna make a lot of money.

But it's coming to a couple of theaters near me and I will go see it in a theater caveat I will go see it in the theater but it has to be at a decent time because one I know it's a three hour movie it might be two and a half and two it's only going to be in theaters for a couple of weeks they do have some other things in the pipeline as well Meryl Streep's going to star in an adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's 2001 novel, The Corrections.

Cord Jefferson is going to, Cord Jefferson is the director and writer of American Fiction.

He also did the live action.

He did the Watchmen TV show on HBO, which is fantastic.

Cord Jefferson's expected to direct the limited, the Meryl Streep show, The Corrections.

They also have a new movie starring Adam Driver and Regina Hall called Rabbit Rabbit, and that's coming out next year.

Does putting weight behind the big names matter in the end? I don't know.

Okay, so I read Madeline's book, Lost Lambs, which is so comedic.

It's sort of, I mean, people described it as The Simpsons meets The Corrections, right? Yes.

And then Jordan's book is so... poetic right and very inside this gay man's brain right and so it's

almost

I didn't read it first time around.

So I'm listening to The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

which is just brilliant.

His intention was to write the big classic, the great American novel.

I just read his most recent book.

Um, uh, yeah, no, what's a, a book that I really- I free- I'm late to the game, but I devoured and loved The Corrections, the Jonathan Franzen-

Oh, really?

... novel.

If I could see an- if I could see a book.

Um, I would love to see a version of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections.

Hmm.

I dunno.

Safeguard Veterans, any door the right support.

Which is the perfect lens through which to view Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, which was published just as the century began back in 2001.

Yes, this novel is just a sprawling forensic dissection of a Midwestern American family, and the premise is painfully mundane.

It really is.

So it doesn't have to be talent related, but what did you learn this week, Alex?

[laughs] So it's actually not talent related, um, but I learned that Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections was published right before 9/11, and I've been going through this weird, like, male Gen X novelist phase this summer.

Um-

[laughs] I just read The Corrections for the first time, like, last month.

Yeah, yeah.

[laughs]