Is Jonathan Franzen The John Holmes Of American Literature?

Further thoughts on the book that everyone’s so agitated about: “So while it’s probably annoying to Franzen that his novel’s launch has been occluded, yet again, by an unrelated media frenzy, it’s also refreshing. Freedom’s characters also found their interior motivations revealed at odd, inappropriate moments. The cultural tsunami provoked by Franzen’s Time cover, too, has apparently been lying in wait for some time. And why, it simply asks, do women writers never get Time covers? It’s a question worth answering on its own terms, but if we keep the wrong turns of Freedom’s principles in mind, we should get honest about it ASAP. Because while the debate is ostensibly about the size of critical attention Franzen deserves, asking the question alone has already quite successfully changed the subject. Looking at these results, one could arrive at a slightly more dangerous conclusion.”