Franzen as Katz...food for thought

"As it happens, I found it difficult not to see Richard Katz as a stand-in for Franzen himself: an artist whose efforts are for 20 years met with critical acclaim and commercial silence, until, in 2001 (also, ahem, the year The Corrections came out), he produces a huge hit whose popularity and attendant widespread adulation make him squirming and scornful. Katz is the book's best character, an unrepentant speaker of truths, and perhaps it goes without saying that the possible parallels between him and the author only make him more intriguing."

Curtis Sittenfeld


The Observer, Sunday 19 September 2010