Freedom / Jonathan Franzen 562 pp.

I read this book compulsively, yet somewhat miserably, until the end when I was no longer miserable but extremely glad I had invested my time.  Walter and Patty Berglund raise their children in a comfortable home in St. Paul.  They have a serious marital problem.  They move, change jobs, their kids grow up, and after things happen, they decide how to handle their problem.  Or, as the narrator reflects often, they decide how to live, and what to do with their freedom.

Sounds simple, and in a way it is.  It strikes me that this is a very straightforward story, and yet it's a rare one.  The language is free of quirks, (perhaps it's the Midwestern ear), and the psychology is almost perfect.  What's refreshing is what I'll call its non-ironic quality.  So much fiction seems to say:  "See how terrible life is, but how cleverly I expose this terrible-ness and laugh at it."  Freedom exposes life as difficult, and occasionally terrible, but suggests that maybe if we try very hard, life can also be good.