The Lamberts are a troubled family living in a troubled age. As Alfred is losing his mind to Parkinson's disease his wife Enid sets her heart on one final family Christmas, but will she get her wish?

Sending to kingfan30 who I tagged in the wishlist tag. Happy reading!

Thanks for the extra books :-)

16 Oct 16 - I can't say I connected with any of the characters at first, and yet found the book perfectly readable. I had to smile at the scene of Chip wrapping a gift in tin foil, it reminded me of the time my husband did the exact same thing one Xmas eve!! It is basically a story about a family and trying to get together for Christmas, and yet it explores each of the characters individually, their background, their secrets. As I said I didn't connect with any of them at first, but as Alfred's health deteriorates it gave me a lot of food for thought. We lost my father-in-law a couple of years ago now, and it made me wonder if this was the sort of things going through his mind.

Sent out after a request on the Reading it Want it forum post.

This was waiting for me when I got in from work. Thanks for sharing, I look forward to reading it.

Firstly I really should apologise for taking so long to get around to this book.

The novel has no real plot, instead its a dark satirical social commentary on the decline of America's heavy industrial past (the so-called Rust Belt) as it is replaced by a hi-tech and service based economy. The reader is also given a glimpse of an Eastern European country struggling to comes to terms with a new Western free-market driven economic model.

Franzen is obviously a keen observer of the detritus of everyday family life and in his writing shows a certain humanity towards his characters even when he is having fun at their expense. Franzen’s insight into his female characters' character is impressive. He nicely portrays both the generational and geographic fractures in American society at the end of the 20th century, the two generations of the Lambert family come to contrast Midwestern with East Coast values.

There are passages which if they didn't actually make me laugh did at least make me smile which is always a good point. However, I still managed to find it really hard to like any of the characters, they all seemed to think that sex equated with love which got a little monotonous at times. After Alfred dies Enid doesn't mourn his passing instead she sees it as an opportunity for self-change making for a realistic rather than a flowery ending.

Of late many of the American authors that I've read seem to feel that quantity equates to quality. At over 650 pages long I believe that some prudent editing could have made it even more memorable. Good but no cigar.

Spotted this on a Wishlist so going out to hopefully make a new friend. Enjoy!

Thank you for this wish list book! :)