Jonathan Franzen

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Jonathan Franzen
Franzen at the 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival.
Born	August 17, 1959 (1959-08-17) (age 49) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Novelist, essayist
Nationality	United States
Writing period	1988 - present
Genres	Literary fiction
Literary movement	Hysterical realism
Official website

Jonathan Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 First two novels 3 The Corrections 4 Non-fiction 5 Translations 6 TV appearances 7 Freedom 8 Works 8.1 Novels 8.2 Non-fiction 8.3 Translations 9 See also 10 References 11 External links 11.1 Interviews

[edit] Early life and education

Franzen was born in Chicago, Illinois, raised in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, and educated at Swarthmore College. He also studied on a Fulbright Scholarship in Germany. He lives on the Upper East Side of New York City, and writes for The New Yorker magazine.

[edit] First two novels

The Twenty-Seventh City, published in 1988, is set in Franzen's hometown, St Louis, and deals with the city's fall from grace, its having been the "fourth city" in the 1870s. This sprawling novel was warmly received, and established Franzen as an author to watch.

Strong Motion (1992) focuses on a dysfunctional family, the Hollands, and uses seismic events on the American East Coast as a metaphor for the quakes that occur in family life.

[edit] The Corrections

Franzen's The Corrections, a novel of social criticism, garnered considerable critical acclaim in the United States.

In September 2001, The Corrections was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. Franzen was, at the time, willing to participate in the selection, appearing in B-roll footage in his hometown of St. Louis (described in an essay in How To Be Alone entitled "Meet Me In St. Louis") and sitting down for a lengthy interview with Oprah. In October 2001, however, The Oregonian printed an article in which Franzen made remarks expressing unease with the selection. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the Oprah insignia being printed on his book by saying, "I see this as my book, my creation, and I didn't want that logo of corporate ownership on it." Soon afterward, Franzen's invitation to appear on Oprah's show was rescinded,^[1] with his "seemingly uncomfortable"^[2] attitude being cited as the reason.

The controversy had little effect on the sales of The Corrections, which became one of the best-selling works of literary fiction of the 21st century so far and won both the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. At the NBA ceremony Franzen thanked Oprah in his brief acceptance speech: "I'd also like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her enthusiasm and advocacy on behalf of The Corrections."^[3]

[edit] Non-fiction

Since The Corrections Franzen has published How to Be Alone (2002), a collection of essays including "Perchance To Dream", and The Discomfort Zone (2006), a memoir. How To Be Alone is essentially an apologia for reading, articulating Franzen's uncomfortable relationship with the place of fiction in contemporary society. It also probes the influence of his childhood and adolescence on his creative life, which is then further explored in The Discomfort Zone.

[edit] Translations

In September 2007, Franzen's translation of Frank Wedekind's play Spring Awakening (German: Frühlings Erwachen) was published. In his introduction, Franzen describes the Broadway musical version as "insipid" and "overpraised." In an interview with New York magazine, Franzen stated that he had in fact made the translation for Swarthmore College's theater department for $50 in 1986, and that it had sat in a drawer for 20 years since. After the Broadway show stirred up so much interest, Franzen said he was inspired to publish it because "I knew it was a good translation, better than anything else out there."^[4]

[edit] TV appearances

• Franzen made an appearance on Charlie Rose in 1996 with fiction authors David Foster Wallace and Mark Leyner to discuss the effects of electronic media on the role of fiction in society.^[5]
• Franzen guest starred alongside Michael Chabon, Tom Wolfe, and Gore Vidal in the Simpsons episode "Moe'N'a Lisa", which originally aired 19 November 2006. In the episode, he got into a fistfight with his real-life friend Chabon.^[6] Franzen, Chabon, and Wolfe were originally supposed to be killed by a giant boulder, but that ending was cut.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Freedom

On June 8, 2009, Franzen published an extract from his work in progress fourth novel Freedom in The New Yorker. The extract, titled 'Good Neighbors', concerned the trials and tribulations of a couple in suburbia.^[7]

[edit] Works

[edit] Novels

• 1988 The Twenty-Seventh City
• 1992 Strong Motion
• 2001 The Corrections
• 2010 Freedom^[8]

[edit] Non-fiction

• 2002 How to Be Alone (essays)
• 2006 The Discomfort Zone (memoir)

[edit] Translations

• 2007 Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind

[edit] See also

• Hysterical realism

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Jonathan Franzen's website
• National Book Award acceptance speech
• Essay by Franzen's girlfriend, Kathryn Chetkovich, about living with a writer from Granta

[edit] Interviews

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jonathan Franzen

• An interview with Donald Antrim from Bomb Magazine
• An interview with Laura Miller from Salon.com, September 7, 2001
• An interview with Dave Weich from Powells.com, October 4, 2001
• An Interview with Todd Leopold from CNN.com, October 18, 2001
• An interview with Bernadette Conrad from Die Zeit, at sightandsign.com, August 4, 2005
• Answering Viewers' Questions at Big Think from April 14, 2008

Persondata
NAME	Franzen, Jonathan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Novelist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 17, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chicago, Illinois
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH