The Golden State (2018)

Hot little hands

Abigail Ulman

2015 · 304 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

"Abigail Ulman's debut is an unflinching exploration of the fragile line between childhood and the adult world. Ulman grounds the stories, set on three different continents, with three stories about a charismatic film-studies major trying to navigate her mid-twenties and the treacherous dating scene in San Francisco. Together Ulman's characters tell the story of all stages of becoming a woman: their collective longing to have the power that maturity can bring and their confusion and disappointment when they finally attain it. Evocative and acutely observed, set mainly San Francisco, about the reality of being a girl today, which manage to be at once mischievous, dignified, and self-deprecating, as well as disturbingly and darkly realistic"--

The Corrections

Jonathan Franzen

2001 · 576 pages · 2 reviews

Others: Mixed

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.

Booth

Karen Joy Fowler

2022 · 480 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline

George Saunders

1996 · 179 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

In six stories and the novella, Bounty, Saunders introduces readers to people struggling to survive in an increasingly haywire world.

Freedom

Jonathan Franzen

2010 · 566 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

Patty und Walter Berglund - Vorzeigeeltern und Umweltpioniere, fast schon ideale Nachbarn in ihrer selbst renovierten viktorianischen Villa in St. Paul - geben plötzlich Rätsel auf: Ihr halbwüchsiger Sohn zieht zur proleten­haften repub­likanischen Familie nebenan, Walter lässt sich zum Schutz einer einzigen Vogelart auf einen zwielichtigen Pakt mit der Kohleindustrie ein, und Patty, Exsportlerin und Eins-a-Hausfrau, entpuppt sich als wahrlich sonderbar. Hat Walters bester Freund, ein Rockmusiker, damit zu tun? Auf einmal lebt Patty ihre kühnsten Träume, führt sie ein Leben ohne Selbstbetrug. In diesem Roman einer Familie, der zugleich ein großes Epos der letzten dreißig Jahre ame­rika­nischer Geschichte ist, erzählt Jonathan Franzen von Freiheit - dem Lebensnerv der westlichen Kulturen - und auch dem Gegenteil von ihr, zeigt die tragikomischen Verwerfungen zeitgenössischer Liebe und Ehe, Freundschaft und Sexualität. Freiheit ist ein bedeutsames Buch über unser Leben in einer immer unübersichtlicher und fragiler werdenden Welt.

Less

Andrew Sean Greer

2017 · 268 pages · 2 reviews

Others: Mixed

Receiving an invitation to his ex-boyfriend's wedding, Arthur, a failed novelist on the eve of his fiftieth birthday, embarks on an international journey that finds him falling in love, risking his life, reinventing himself, and making connections with the past.