21st Century Literature discussion

This thread is for questions and general thoughts on The Corrections.
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My main sticking point with this book right now is the style of prose, which can be pretentious and a little imprecise in my opinion. But the dialogue is so spot-on and enjoyable that I'm able to view the narrator's language from a different point of view.

I also was wondering what everybody else thought of Franzen's technique of matching his narrator's voice to the protagonist of each chapter. Obviously, this is not a new concept, but it seems to me that the author does it so effortlessly that I'm often unaware that anything was happening until a change in perspective occurs. Then I'm jarred by the shift - one example that comes to mind is the change from "The More He Thought About It, the Angrier He Got" to "At Sea". This technique seems particularly effective in this book, because it alerts us to the psychological gaps between each protagonist that keep them from functioning properly as a family.

That's an interesting observation, Glenn. I'm not sure I noticed that as much, I might have to page back a bit and re-read some passages carefully, thanks!