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Content snapshot
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Violence
Barely any
No significant violence
Language
A lot
Strong language throughout — Franzen's literary fiction voice is frank and unsparing
Sexual Content
Some
Adult romantic and sexual content; multiple affairs depicted with frank detail
Substance Use
Some
Moderate drinking and drug use among the characters
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The specific anguish of a marriage that has gradually become a life sentence; the gap between the person someone wanted to be and the person they became; political despair as personal texture
What this book is about
Walter and Patty Berglund are the perfect liberal family in a St. Paul neighborhood — good parents, environmentally conscious, honest. Their son Joey rebels by moving in with the conservative family next door. Walter throws himself into a bird conservation project that compromises everything he believes. Patty writes an autobiography about what went wrong. Jonathan Franzen's second major novel unfolds over decades, through diaries and perspectives and the full weight of ordinary American ambition: what we sacrifice to be good, what we sacrifice to be happy, and how rarely those turn out to be the same thing. An Oprah Book Club selection that Franzen initially refused, then accepted.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
strong language and adult content throughout
Franzen's style is dense and psychologically demanding
Reader Verification
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