The Corrections

Description:

Like bookends of the past half century, the two generations of the Lambert family represent two very different aspects of America. Alfred, the patriarch, is a distant, puritanical company man; he is also slipping into Parkinson's-induced dementia. His wife, Enid, is a model Midwestern housewife, at once deferential and controlling. Their three children--Gary, an uptight banker, baffled by his own persistent unhappiness; Chip, and ex-professor now failing as a screenwriter; and Denise, and up-and-coming chief in a hot new restaurant--have little time for Enid and Alfred. But when Enid calls for one last Christmas at the family home, the trajectories of five American lifetimes converge. With this important, profoundly affecting work, Jonathan Franzen confirms his place in the top tier of American novelists. His unique blend of subversive humor and full-blooded realism makes The Corrections a grandly entertaining family saga.

subjects: dementia,  alcoholism,  Protestantism,  depression,  corruption in Lituania,  adultery,  Christmas,  Parent and adult child,  Fiction,  Married women,  Married women in fiction,  Parkinson's disease,  Parkinson's disease in fiction,  Middle West in fiction,  Parent and adult child in fiction,  National Book Award Winner,  award:national_book_award=2001,  award:national_book_award=fiction,  New York Times bestseller,  nyt:trade_fiction_paperback=2010-08-29,  LGBT,  Married women -- Fiction,  Patients,  Domestic fiction,  Parkinson's disease -- Patients -- Fiction,  Parent and adult child -- Fiction,  Middle West -- Fiction,  Older women,  Families,  Psychology,  Christmas stories,  Fiction, family life,  Married people, fiction,  Middle west, fiction,  Large type books,  Dysfunctional families,  Social life and customs,  Manners and customs,  Mujeres casadas,  Novela,  Parálisis agitante,  Pacientes,  Padres e hijos,  Fiction, family life, general,  Familie,  Eltern,  Lebensplan,  Erwachsenes Kind,  Kritik

People: Alfred Lambert,  Enid Lambert,  Gary Lambert,  Chip Lambert,  Denise Lambert

Places: St. Louis,  Missouri,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  New York,  Queens,  Manhattan,  Lithuania,  America,  East Coast,  St. Jude,  Middle West

Times: 1990s,  20th century