I love how Jonathan Franzen continues to make me stop and read his lines over and over again. In the middle of an unassuming paragraph, he drops in tiny little snippets of imagery, completely capturing a moment.
An emotion you never thought was true until it was phrased that way.
The moments are so fleeting he allows you to skim over them, processing the narrative until you are ready to dwell on his subtext. And if that moment doesn't strike you or tickle your fancy, well, there'll be another one just around the corner.
I think I'd like to write like him when I grow up, please.
Fitzgerald, Franzen... Faulkner next? The Sound and the Fury, please. My favourite.
ReplyDeleteI just read that line on page 218 of Freedom!
ReplyDeleteGreat recommendation - thanks, Alice! I wonder if Mr Franzen took some inspiration from Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage? The family name Berglund may be a tribute to the Swedish film director.
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