Sunday, October 31, 2010

"To me, the point of a novel is to take you to a still place..."

"...You can multitask with a lot of things, but you can't really multitask reading a book. You're either reading a book or you're not. To me, the world of books is the quiet alternative, an even more desperately needed alternative."

~ Jonathan Franzen, via The Atlantic

I had actually written that quote--by hand!--when I first came across it a couple months ago. And it seems even more appropriate now that I've finished his latest novel, "Freedom." It took me about a week to finish the 500-page book, and I was reading during any and all free moments; it was a true gift to enter the "still place" of its world.


2 comments:

george rede said...

Love the quote. And how was the book? How does it compare to his other work?

August said...

I actually never read "Corrections," and I'm going to wait a while before diving into that. But I really enjoyed "Freedom." Much of the story takes place during the last decade, with 9/11, the build-up to Iraq as backdrops. It felt current.

A couple weeks ago I was trying to remember the friend who had this weird thing happen to her. "Who was that???" After some time, I remembered it was a character from the book!