Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulAn aging Midwestern couple tries to get their three grown children home for one last Christmas
The Corrections
A mother wants all three of her grown children home for one last Christmas
Alfred Lambert is a strict former railroad engineer whose Parkinson's disease and dementia are getting worse. His wife Enid, frustrated, tries to press her judgments on their adult children, who resent it. Gary is a banker in Philadelphia, Chip an unemployed former academic in New York, and Denise a chef who is about to open a restaurant. As Alfred declines, Enid becomes more desperate to get all of them back to St. Jude for Christmas.
More about this book
Who
Alfred and Enid Lambert and their children Gary, Chip and Denise.
World
The Midwestern suburb of St. Jude, plus Philadelphia, New York and, later, Vilnius, Lithuania, from the mid-twentieth century to around the turn of the millennium.
What makes it different
It moves back and forth in time, and it was a turn toward realism after Franzen's more postmodern earlier novels. A Netflix series was ordered in 2026.
Feel
Family comedy and drama. It won the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction and was a Pulitzer finalist.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The CorrectionsWikipedia