The Corrections

Summary

A sweeping family saga centered on the aging Lambert parents in the Midwest and their three grown children scattered across the country, each privately unraveling as a final family Christmas approaches. Franzen weaves social satire with intimate psychological realism, dissecting consumerism, pharmaceuticals, academia, and the fault lines of late-twentieth-century American life. The novel is widely regarded as a defining work of its era and helped revive interest in the ambitious domestic novel.