Countdown (+ book review)

We are still 100% stressed out. In case you were wondering. We spend our days harping at the realtor, harping at each other, harping at Lucy, and harping at inanimate objects. By the end of the day all three of us are so exhausted that we look like this:

Not kidding.

It helps that it was shark week on the Discovery channel. That was entertaining.

We were supposed to go on a super duper hike in RMNP today but are staying home instead because some decisions need to be made with our realtor. We are not thrilled but our leg muscles are celebrating the unexpected break.

And now, on top of it all, the countdown to the school year begins. I have a month. One. Month. Instead of glancing here and there at the syllabus, I need to get busy and finalize things, but I procrastinate instead. And mope around, looking at pictures of Croatia, where we were a year ago. I have several projects to wrap up at my grueling summer job and I just want to lay around and drink wine. And read.

Which brings me to the latest book review.

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The only other book I've read by Franzen is Freedom (oddly enough, I read it this time last year), and I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed this one. G asked me what this book was about, and I replied that it follows an American family over time and depicts the many changes that have happened (rapidly) in American life: economically, sociologically, psychologically. And then he asked me, again, what it was about. And I was like, yeah, ok, that's all I got.

The thing is, Franzen's books are true. You know how they say that good art or literature reflects truth, reflects authenticity? That's what this book does. The plot is that the aging parents of a family (with the dad suffering from Parkinson's) request that the grown children come for one last Christmas together. The three grown children are wildly different: the oldest son is thriving financially and personally, with a wife and three boys, but is battling depression and is burning the candle at both ends trying to keep his wits about him; the middle son is a floundering academic who has hit rock bottom and is in the process of getting involved in all kinds of illegal trouble; the daughter (in her early thirties) is recovering from a failed marriage when her career takes off. The book follows each character and weaves their stories into a greater narrative of life in America over the past few generations.

Franzen's writing is witty, and humorous, and touching, and real. While I don't exactly identify with these characters in particular, I found myself struck by how authentic their experiences are.

And there you have it. I only have one more month to read. I ordered all the books for my Virginia Woolf class yesterday and got both giddy and nervous at the same time.

Off to procrastinate some more!