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Jonathan Franzen
by John Freeman
Last week in Work in Progress we brought you John Freeman’s conversation with Jeffrey Eugenides as the first of an exclusive two-part preview of Freeman’s How to Read a Novelist, his book of more than fifty author profiles coming from FSG Originals this October. This week, we conclude that preview with Freeman’s conversation with Jonathan Franzen. (more…)
Jonathan Franzen is the author of four novels (Freedom, The Corrections, Strong Motion, and The Twenty-Seventh City), a collection of essays (How to Be Alone), a personal history (The Discomfort Zone), and a translation of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, all published by FSG. He lives in New York City and Santa Cruz, California. The following piece is excerpted from his new book Farther Away: Essays.
There’s so much to read and so little time. I’m always looking for a reason to put a book down and not pick it up again, and one of the best reasons a writer can give me is to use the word then as a conjunction without a subject following it.
She lit a Camel Light, then dragged deeply.
He dims the lamp and opens the window, then pulls the body inside.
I walked to the door and opened it, then turned back to her.
If you use comma-then like this frequently in the early pages of your book, I won’t read any farther unless I’m forced to, because you’ve already told me several important things about yourself as a writer, none of them good. (more…)
The last week of April means two things in New York: inclement weather and the wonderful PEN World Voices Festival. There’s an entire week of diverse programming with celebrated authors from all corners of the globe, but the audience favorite would have to be the Moth storytelling night.
This year Jonathan Franzen shared an autobiographical anecdote about the dangers of using your life in your writing: (more…)
We are very excited about Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, his first novel since The Corrections. He recently stopped by our office to discuss the ideas behind his book, why reading is the opposite of multitasking, and how very odd it can be for authors to appear on video.
See Also:
“Great American Novelist,” TIME cover story by Lev Grossman
“Good Neighbors” and “Agreeable” in The New Yorker
