Jonathan Franzen wasn’t right about everything, but he was right about enough things that the “Franzenfreude” era of the early aughts now looks more than a little overblown. The first literary sensation of the 21st century, The Corrections was Franzen’s third novel and his first introduction to fame.

Focused on the disastrous months that precede a painful and painfully hilarious family holiday, The Corrections is about the modern anxieties of plugging in, selling out, and turning into your parents.

Now underrated, it still hits, and on revisiting it, I realized this is the high I’ve been chasing in most of the lit fic reading of my adult life.

🎧 Join us and special guest Rob Harvilla, host of 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s, for a wild conversation about this modern classic.