Farther Away

I love reading books of essays by writers whom I admire and when I saw that Jonathan Franzen had a new essay collection out, I immediately placed a hold on the book. Farther Away is an interesting collection of essays, reviews, and speeches that span personal, literary, and environmental topics. The first essay, "Pain Won't Kill You" is a commencement address he gave in which he argues the necessity of making oneself vulnerable by opening one's heart, even if it'll cause one pain. I absolutely loved this essay as it began with rants about the narcissistic tendencies of technology, particularly the use of texting and Facebook. It was definitely one of my favorite essays in the book and had great lines like, "To friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors."

He writes about his close friendship with the late writer David Foster Wallace and about how Wallace's suicide effected Franzen. He spoke about his passion for birds and trips to China and the Mediterranean that caused him to reflect on environmental devastations. He discusses books he loves, ones I hadn't heard of but now wish to read (The Man Who Loved Children and Desperate Characters). In "Comma-Then" he complains about the misuse of the word 'then' particularly when used after a comma and in "I Just Called To Say I Love You" he discusses his discomfort with the incessant pronouncements of love over cell phones. This essay delves into 9/11 and the increased usage of the phrase after the tragedy as well as his mother's comfort with uttering the words, but how his father never did. Perhaps my favorite essay was "On Autobiographical Fiction" which tackles the questions Franzen hates to be asked about his novels and reflects on how he became the person he needed to be to write The Corrections. I loved his idea that a writer needs to write the best book he or she possibly can and then to write a second, must become another person entirely so once again can write the best book possible. Though I wasn't crazy about all the essays, overall I really enjoyed this collection and would like to reread some of them again in the future.