The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

I am slowly working my way through the half of the New York Times Best 100 Books of the 21st Century that I have not read (VERY slowly indeed), and read this, only my second book by this author. It is much like the first, which is a sweeping saga of a deeply flawed family who are essentially the opposite of supportive of each other, and unlikable at the same time. The Lambert family is essentially a sad cast of characters. The elder Lamberts, Enid and Alfred, are in a mess. Alfred, a once confident and able, if anal-retentive man, is succumbing rapidly to Parkinson's disease and dementia. He hangs out all day every day in the basement to avoid Enid, who has problems of her own. For a start, she thinks Alfred might still get better if only he'd do the useless exercises his doctor has given him. She's also obsessed with the idea of bringing her children together for one last Christmas – a prospect that seems horribly unlikely since the children don't want to visit her, her view of them is wildly distorted, and they have problems of their own. Gary tries to avoid the fact that he is crushingly depressed by drinking more and more martinis. Denise's love life has become so tangled that she's lost her job and just about everything else. Chipper has been fired from academia for sleeping with a student and things only get worse when he starts working for a criminal to defraud the people of Lithuania. The book is tragic in most senses of the word, and yes, there are moments of true hilarity amidst the crushing despair. It is realistic, from start to finish, and everyone manages to pick themselves up and do a little better. It is brilliant and difficult.