Freedom by Jonathan Franzen was actually available for the taking at my local library today. So I took it. Tomorrow I am taking it back.
It is OK and I enjoyed the 20 minutes or so I spent in its early pages. It is one of those "what is all the fuss about" books that I wanted to at least sample so I could be prepared for water cooler chat about. Franzen is a clever writer. And knows it.
The setting and characters are just too ordinary to maintain my interest. No vampires. No wizards. No entrance to fantastically "other" worlds via rabbit hole, wardrobe, or ring. No murder that must be solved. No eboli variant threatening thousands with a messy death unless one valiant epidemiologist swoops in to save the day, armed with only a haz mat suit, a microscope, and half a dozen tongue depressors. No interesting historical background such as in Oliver Potzsch's The Hangman's Daughter, which I am currently reading on my Kindle. That one is set in 17th Century northern Europe.
"Ordinary," no matter how cleverly described, can only hold me for 20 minutes or so.
