Reading Freedom with Oprah

I am reading Jonathan Franzen’s FREEDOM along with the millions of other Oprah Book Club members. I am diligently following the reading schedule mapped out by the OBC  (although I may be a little ahead of the group because we are supposed to be on page 119 right now and I’m on 303…okay, a lot ahead of the group, but it’s just that good). Here is what I have discovered through my reading of this truly riveting story, freedom is not what you think it is, or at least it isn’t portrayed in the way you expect. I recently watched Diane von Furstenberg on television (I can’t lie, it was on America’s Next Top Model) and she made the statement, “Freedom gives you the power to soar like a bird.” That closely parallels my initial reaction to the word “Freedom.” Looking at the cover of Franzen’s FREEDOM and the blue bird perched in the corner made me reflect on this immediate reaction and wonder if it somehow pertained to the overall story. I was wrong.

When I started the book, I thought freedom represented all that we strive for in life and I believed that it ultimately leads to our happiness and overall contentedness. However, as I continue to read, I can’t help but feel my perception of “freedom” is being challenged and I wonder if Jonathan Franzen is exposing some animosity towards this perception. For example, here is a quote relating to Patty Berglund, the matriarch of the novel, from page 181:

“She had all day every day to figure out some decent and satisfying way to live, and yet all she ever seemed to get for all her choices and all her freedom was more miserable. The autobiographer is almost forced to the conclusion that she pitied herself for being so free.”

Does too much freedom alter the way you live your life? Does it change relationships? Does it ruin things? Joey (Patty & Walter’s son) resents the freedom he experienced during his adolescent and teen years. He has animosity towards his mother for how “free” she felt in telling him about her past and the experiences she had in her own adolescent years. Ironically I compared freedom to being like a bird in a beautiful and hopeful way while Joey compares his mother, Patty, to a bird but with a negative connotation.

“Or as if she were one of his dad’s endangered birds, singing its obsolete song in the woods in the forlorn hope of some passing kindred spirit hearing it.” (p. 250)

He also resents the time he spent with his high school girlfriend Connie, living in her house, because it created an unhealthy attachment and placed him in a position that he can’t seem to escape from in his college life.

“He’d asked for his freedom, they’d granted it, and he couldn’t go back now.” (p. 241)

This freedom that Franzen writes about is depicted as having too many options. With too many choices comes a lack of focus and an inability to succeed at one thing. Too many choices leads to a fragmentations.

“It’s like the internet, or cable TV- there’s never any center, there’s no communal agreement, there’s just a trillion little bits of distracting noise. We can never sit down and have any kind of sustained conversation, it’s all just cheap trash and shitty development. All the real things, the authentic things, the honest things are dying off. Intellectually and culturally, we just bounce around like random billiard balls, reacting to the latest random stimuli.” (p. 218)

Too much freedom leads to a life of excess where appreciation for what we do have is often overlooked for what we could potentially have. Is this what Franzen is saying? Do we have too much freedom?

When we are introduced to Patty, she is presented to us as a jock. “Patty frightened nobody, but she’d been a standout athlete in high school and college and possessed a jock sort of fearlessness.” (p.4) There is a sense of freedom in being able to dominate and excel in the world of sports, especially if you are a woman. But with this comes a sense of such intense independence that the thought of needing someone else to “complete” you becomes a foreign concept. There is such an exhilaration in being part of a team, excelling at something and winning that can lead to this fearlessness that Patty experiences. I think that sense of freedom is beautiful. But with Patty, it all changes one night in college when she is forced to relinquish her power, freedom and independence and is forced to rely on Walter and the support she had never needed (or wanted) before. This also brings to light Patty’s “freedom” from her family. “One strange thing about Patty, given her strong family orientation, was that she had no discernible connection to her roots.” Patty’s family is non-existent. As far as Franzen is concerned, she has no family worth writing about. She is completely disconnected to them and is 100% free.

If you haven’t picked up the book, I really haven’t given anything away because this isn’t the kind of story where shocking things are revealed left and right. This a methodical, realistic tale about life and love, passion and acceptance, goals and truth. It’s about the beauty and the ugliness found in real moments. As I said, I haven’t finished it yet. I’m about two-thirds of the way through and should be finishing it up this week. I will keep you posted as I read along with Oprah. Let me know if you are joining in on the book club fun?