FREEDOM, by Jonathan Franzen

Freedom is a deep, exhausting and impressive book centered on a dysfunctional American family, Patty & Walter Berglund, their parents, and children. By means of the interesting technique of a third-person autobiographical narrative written presumably as therapy for Patty's depression, the reader learns about the roots of her personality and about events hidden in the main narrative. The story complexly shifts among narratives of Patty, Walter, Richard Katz ( Walter's best friend who is a rock musician playing out a curious blend of loyalty & betrayal to Walter), Joey (W & P's son, who is the apple of Patty's eye) and his wife Connie (daughter of the Berglund's redneck neighbors in St. Paul, MN). A love triangle predominates the story - between Patty, Walter & Richard. There are two other love triangles in the plot. The story, set in the 1990s and very early 21st Century, is told with a great deal of heart yet avoids sentimentalism. It's an impressive novel indeed.

For a review of the book from NY Times, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0