Jonathan Franzen reads from "Freedom" at Book People, Austin, Texas, September 17, 2010

When writing about something painful, Jonathan Franzen says, he know he’s got it right when he reads it and laughs. Why? “Because I’m the mediator between the raw experience and the reader. Nobody really wants to read about the raw, they want a little distance.”

And as he read from his new novel, “Freedom,” tonight, the audience laughed easily. The material was raw, yes, portraits of people we all know and wreckage we’ve witnessed, but with that little displacement, the bit of transformation added that makes the familiar dialog palatable and funny in its tragic absurdity.

How do you follow up a blockbuster success like “The Corrections,” with multi-millions of sales, a 2001 National Book Award, having the book named “Best Novel of the Decade” by a notable panel of your peers, and enduring a notorious dustup with Oprah Winfrey over your ambivalence about her selection of your book for her book club? Slowly and thoughtfully, it would seem. Franzen took his time, years of his time, to watch birds and think and consider what he would write about next. And as he says, he doesn’t write until he has something to write about.

Not that he doesn’t write constantly. He’s an inspiringly disciplined writer, letting little intervene between sleep and work each morning except for coffee and a small breakfast, but it’s taken this long for the next book to differentiate itself from all that work because, well, because it did. He writes at a simple wooden table with nothing on it except an aging laptop. I’ve read that he epoxied an Ethernet cable into the data port and then cut the cord off it to prevent any possible distractions or temptations. After meeting him, I believe it, and as a well-wired but lesser known writer I am frightened by the implications.

But now his new book has finally emerged, and having committed to this book tour back when he thought that hardback book sales were pretty much over and publishing was dying, and it was going to take a big marketing push to get anyone to read the thing, Franzen is bemused by the fact that in his first week of the tour his book is already a best seller and that Oprah has again chosen his book for her club. Again. And invited him on her show, while acknowledging that “we have a little history together.” To her credit she invited him, to his credit he accepted.

Is this a brilliant novel? That judgment is a little above my pay grade. But I will say, having read the first 42 pages while waiting to get my book signed, it surely has a lot of brilliant writing in it. And then, when I finally had my 15 seconds with the man, he did something so charming I was left speechless.

As the line approached the book signing table, assistants asked if you wanted your book personalized, or just signed. If you wanted it personalized, they asked the name for the author to inscribe, wrote it on a yellow PostItNote™ and stuck it inside, opposite the title page. When my turn came Franzen smiled, opened the book, then sat back, and said “David!” Looking back at me intently he continued, “Did you notice this page is wrinkled?” Dumbly I nodded yes, a little worried, acknowledging there was a small wrinkle in the paper. “We can’t have that, can we?” he said, drawing the book back towards him as he reached under the table, pulled out another copy and handed it to me. Gaping, I opened to the title page, which was inscribed “To David, Jonathan Franzen.”  

Just a little magic. Masterful. "Freedom."

Love, David

Photo & text  ©2010 David Kinne