Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly but continually expecting a different result.  Which is what I did when I decided to read another one of Jonathan Franzen's books. 

The book starts off pretty well, it's about a family living in the suburbs and Franzen does a great job describing the place in their neighborhood this particular family had.  Patty, the mom, is a near-perfect wife and mother, Walther, the dad, is reserved but well-liked.  Their son Joey is difficult, dating the slightly lower-class next-door neighbor's daughter, and their daughter Jessica was a near-perfect child. 

After an initial introduction, the book changes into a memoir written by Patty about her life growing up leading to how she met and married Walter.  This part of the book was enjoyable as well - Walter's charismatic roommate, Patty's manipulative best friend both figuring prominently in the story.  But after this section, the book take a difficult turn.  The narration leaves the memoir and follows different member of the family.  Some of their stories - like Joey's failed businesses - are interesting.  But some parts of the book are significantly overwritten and veer into very strange political commentary. 

By the time I was 2/3 of the way through the book I was exhausted!  The details were extensive, the speeches some of the characters give way too long, and the overall story loses its direction.  The characters each make predictable mistakes.  Then they have to find their way back to being authentic.  By the end of the book, most of the loose ends were tucked neatly away, but at 550+ pages, I didn't really care that much by then.

I think I'm pretty much done with Franzen.  Sorry, Oprah.

The Angel's Game by Gabriel Ruiz Zafon

This book had been on my reading list for a while; I believe it was on one of the year-end book lists.  It is a mystery set in Barcelona in the 1920's. 

I was hoping to like this book.  The story is about a young author who is fired from his job at a newspaper and then approached by a mysterious man to write a particular book for him.  The man is not who he seems, and neither are some of the other characters.  Ruiz Zafon does a wonderful job evoking a creepy, gothic Barcelona that is scary and damp and filled with suspicious characters.  But where the book fell short for me was that the plot was very complex with a long cast of characters.  Significant portions of the book were devoted to discussions of theology and belief systems that did not connect to the plot for me.  And there were several surprises and plot twists that were annoying to me rather than delightful.

Ruiz Zafon remains one of the most admired contemporary mystery authors, but this one missed the mark for me.