The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen, reviewed by Esquire

It begins witha perfectly crafted opening paragraph and goes on to describe,in six elegant chapters, Franzen's maturation from a "small andfundamentally ridiculous person," to the kind of successful, childlessadult who enjoys activities like birding. He seems at times tobe setting up his life as emblematic of the changes the countryhas undergone during it; for instance, he ends a long paragraphdescribing the environmental recklessness of the last ten yearsby saying that it occurred "in the decade when I left my wifeand took up with a twenty-seven-year-old and really started havingfun." Franzen seems, alternately, to be detailing his aesthetic.From the assertive averageness of his practical, Midwestern familyto his love of the sad-funny comics of Charles Schultz to hisknowledge of the German language, this book reads like a map ofthe sensibility that made The Corrections so entertaining andimportant. Even in his minor scenes and ordinary descriptions,Franzen employs a cartoonish flair that catches the reader's eyeand signifies that it all really is about something greater thanhimself.

Powell's Books - Review-a-Day - The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen, reviewed by Esquire