The Corrections

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The Corrections
First edition cover
Author	Jonathan Franzen
Cover artist	Jacket design by Lynn Buckley. Photograph: Willinger / FPG
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date	September 1, 2001
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	568 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-374-12998-3 (first edition, hardback)

The Corrections is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-twentieth century to "one last Christmas" together near the turn of the millennium.

1 Plot summary
2 Themes
3 Awards and nominations
4 Film adaptation
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Alfred Lambert, the patriarch of a seemingly normal family living in the fictional town of St. Jude, suffers from Parkinson's disease and dementia. Enid, his long-suffering wife, suffers from Alfred's controlling, rigid behavior and her own embarrassment at what she perceives as her family's shortcomings. Their children all live in the Northeast. Gary, the eldest Lambert son, is a successful banker who refuses to believe that he has clinical depression, and, as a result, becomes increasingly paranoid, suspecting that his wife and sons are conspiring against him. Chip, the middle child, is a failed college professor whose disastrous affair with a student sends his life into decline and lands him in the employ of a Lithuanian crime boss. Denise, the youngest of the family, is successful in her career as a chef, but her out of control sexuality causes her to become entangled in a bizarre love triangle with various members of her boss's family.

[edit] Themes

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"The Corrections" of the title references life itself; life is a series of corrections everyone makes for themselves to improve their lives and treat problems, but invariably the people never reach the perfect life, as their corrections often result in new problems.

In addition to exploring the Lambert family's problems, the novel offers social commentary on a variety of subjects, including globalization, academic fads, the proliferation of technology, and the changes in family values over the years. The story is told in a richly layered fashion, from the microscopic level of diseased neurons to the macroscopic level of America's rusting train lines metaphorically evoking interpersonal problems and failures to communicate.

[edit] Awards and nominations

The novel won the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, was nominated for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award, and was shortlisted for the 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In 2005, The Corrections was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels.^[1]

It was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in 2001 (ISBN 0-374-10012-8); Franzen caused some controversy when he publicly lamented the fact that, once selected, the club's insignia was printed on the cover of the novel. He also expressed ambivalence at having been chosen for the club. As a result he was disinvited from Oprah's show, though the book club still discussed the novel without him.

[edit] Film adaptation

In August 2001, producer Scott Rudin optioned the film rights to The Corrections for Paramount Pictures.^[2] In 2002, the film was said to be in pre-production, with Stephen Daldry attached to direct and dramatist David Hare working on the screenplay.^[3] In October 2002, Franzen gave Entertainment Weekly a wish cast-list for the film, saying, "If they told me Gene Hackman was going to do Alfred, I would be delighted. If they told me they had cast Cate Blanchett as [Alfred's daughter] Denise, I would be jumping up and down, even though officially I really don't care what they do with the movie."^[4]

In January 2005, Variety announced that, with Daldry presumably off the project, Robert Zemeckis was developing Hare's script "with an eye toward directing."^[5] In August 2005, Variety confirmed that the director would definitely be helming The Corrections.^[6] Around this time, it was rumored that the cast would include Judi Dench as the family matriarch Enid, along with Brad Pitt, Tim Robbins, and Naomi Watts.^[7] In January 2007, Variety wrote that Hare was still at work on the film's screenplay.^[8]