The Discomfort Zone
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LC Class | PS3556.R352 Z46 2006 |
The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History is a 2006 memoir by Jonathan Franzen, who received the National Book Award for Fiction for his novel The Corrections in 2001.[1][2]
Themes
According to
Perhaps most important, Franzen explores the duality of solitude and interpersonal relationships. Primarily using his mother's death as a metaphor for all human relationships, Franzen concludes that although relationships are essential to our existence, we often fail to recognize and appreciate their importance at the time.
Contents
- "House for Sale" (on the author's mother, sale of the family house)
- "Two Ponies" (on "Charles Schulz)
- "Then Joy Breaks Through" (on Christian education)
- "Centrally Located"
- "The Foreign Language" (German, that is)
- "My Bird Problem" (the author's marriage, his birdinghobby)
Critical reception
In 2006, New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani called The Discomfort Zone "an odious self-portrait of the artist as a young jackass." Franzen subsequently called Kakutani "the stupidest person in New York City".[4][5]
Marjorie Kehe of the The Christian Science Monitor called the book a "whipsaw reading experience" that was both "sharply insightful and frustratingly obtuse".[6]
References
- ^ National Book Foundation 2001 National Book Award Winners and Finalists
- ^ National Book Foundation Jonathan Franzen National Book Award Acceptance Speech
- ^ "C´era una volta il Midwest", L´Espresso, August 24, 2006, p. 120.
- ^ Cochrane, Kira (April 30, 2008). "Don't mess with Michiko Kakutani". the Guardian. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
- ^ Pompeo, Joe (2017). "Michiko Kakutani, the Legendary Book Critic and the Most Feared Woman in Publishing, Is Stepping Down from The New York Times". The Hive. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
- Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
External links
- Chapter One, "House for Sale," in The Guardian
- A list of Discomfort Zone reviews at The Complete Review
- Presentation by Franzen on The Discomfort Zone at the Miami Book Fair International, November 18, 2006