Overview

"Jonathan Franzen's Freedom was the runaway most-discussed novel of 2010, an ambitious and searching engagement with life in America in the twenty-first century. In The New York Times Book Review, Sam Tanenhaus proclaimed it ""a masterpiece of American fiction"" and lauded its illumination, ""through the steady radiance of its author's profound moral intelligence, [of] the world we thought we knew."" In Farther Away, which gathers together essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes, both human and literary, that have long preoccupied him. Whether recounting his violent encounter with bird poachers in Cyprus, examining his mixed feelings about the suicide of his friend and rival David Foster Wallace, or offering a moving and witty take on the ways that technology has changed how people express their love, these pieces deliver on Franzen's implicit promise to conceal nothing. On a trip to China to see first-hand the environmental devastation there, he doesn't omit mention of his excitement and awe at the pace of China's economic development; the trip becomes a journey out of his own prejudice and moral condemnation. Taken together, these essays trace the progress of unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day. Farther Away is remarkable, provocative, and necessary."

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9781427221483

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Whether listeners are Franzen devotees or new to his work, they'll find this audio collection of recent essays and speeches appealing for its sound as well as its sentiments. Franzen is an affable narrator who offers a simultaneously passionate and practical performance. Scott Shepherd sounds equally relaxed and appealing as he provides vocal variety that complements the collection's range of topics...both narrators capture moments that ring so true they may inspire audible gasps...the overall effect is moving and thought-provoking. - AudioFile Magazine Praise for the print edition Farther Away [Franzen's] new collection takes the reader on a closely guided tour of his private concerns . . . the miscorrelation between merit and fame, the breakdown of a marriage, birds, the waning relevance of the novel in popular culture . . . Franzen rewards the reader with extended meditations on common phenomena we might otherwise consider unremarkable . . . the observations [he] makes regarding subjects like cell phone etiquette, the ever-evolving face of modern love and technology are trenchant . . . With Farther Away, Mr. Franzen demonstrates his ability to dissect the kinds of quotidian concerns that so often evade scrutiny . . . It may be eight years before he releases his next shimmering novel; in the meantime Mr. Franzen seems intent on keeping the conversation going. Farther Away at least achieves that. --Alex Fankuchen, The New York Observer Throughout the book, Franzen suggests that storytelling is a way to interpret and relieve our collective suffering--a vehicle for social connection--and that apathy can be challenged with Molotov cocktails of 'bottomless empathy, born out of the heart's revelation that another person is every bit as real as you are' . . . Combining personal history with cultural events and the minutiae of daily life, Franzen evokes Joan Didion's tone of rigorous self-examination, and [David Foster] Wallace's wit and philo

<p> In giving voice to a chronicle of his journey to a remote island off the coast of Chile, Franzen effectively captures a sense of foreboding, particularly in his reflections of the suicide of fellow author and close friend David Foster Wallace. Shepherd skillfully transitions among the mix of genres - criticism, memoir, travelogue - latching onto dramatic elements while maintaining the cerebral tone set by Franzen himself. Shepherd's talent proves especially memorable in his rendering of Franzen's expose on songbird hunting in the Mediterranean; he portrays the players on both sides of this environmental struggle with an ear for vivid detail. - Publishers Weekly <p> <p>Praise for the print edition of Farther Away <p> Further dispatches from one of contemporary literature's most dependable talents . . . Anyone with an interest in the continued relevance of literature and in engaging with the world in a considered way will find much here to savor. An unfailingly elegant and thoughtful collection of essays from the formidable mind of Franzen, written with passion and haunted by loss. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)<p> Franzen . . . follows up his 2010 blockbuster novel, Freedom, with a collection of recent essays, speeches, and reviews, in which he lays out a view of literature in which storytelling and character development trump lyrical acrobatics, and unearths a few forgotten classics . . . in his native realm--books that revel in the frustrations, despairs, and near-blisses of human relationships--he is an undeniably perceptive reader . . . This intimate read is packed with provocative questions about technology, love, and the state of the contemporary novel. -- Publisher's Weekly <p> [Franzen's] new collection takes the reader on a closely guided tour of his private concerns . . . the miscorrelation between merit and fame, the breakdown of a marriage, birds, the waning relevance of the novel in popular culture . . . Franzen rewards the reader with ext

<p>Praise for Farther Away <p> Further dispatches from one of contemporary literature's most dependable talents . . . Anyone with an interest in the continued relevance of literature and in engaging with the world in a considered way will find much here to savor. An unfailingly elegant and thoughtful collection of essays from the formidable mind of Franzen, written with passion and haunted by loss. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)<p> Franzen . . . follows up his 2010 blockbuster novel, Freedom, with a collection of recent essays, speeches, and reviews, in which he lays out a view of literature in which storytelling and character development trump lyrical acrobatics, and unearths a few forgotten classics . . . in his native realm--books that revel in the frustrations, despairs, and near-blisses of human relationships--he is an undeniably perceptive reader . . . This intimate read is packed with provocative questions about technology, love, and the state of the contemporary novel. -- Publisher's Weekly <p> [Franzen's] new collection takes the reader on a closely guided tour of his private concerns . . . the miscorrelation between merit and fame, the breakdown of a marriage, birds, the waning relevance of the novel in popular culture . . . Franzen rewards the reader with extended meditations on common phenomena we might otherwise consider unremarkable . . . the observations [he] makes regarding subjects like cell phone etiquette, the ever-evolving face of modern love and technology are trenchant . . . With Farther Away, Mr. Franzen demonstrates his ability to dissect the kinds of quotidian concerns that so often evade scrutiny . . . It may be eight years before he releases his next shimmering novel; in the meantime Mr. Franzen seems intent on keeping the conversation going. Farther Away at least achieves that. --Alex Fankuchen, The New York Observer <p> Throughout the book, Franzen suggests that storytelling is a way to interpret and relieve our collective suff

Author Information

Jonathan Franzen is the author of novels such as The Corrections (2001), Freedom (2010), and Crossroads (2021), and works of nonfiction, including Farther Away (2012) and The End of the End of the Earth (2018), all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.

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