A very interesting conversation and interaction with your young viewers/listeners. I was most fascinated by this encounter for I have just read Crossroads and enjoyed it very much. I have read 4 of your novels which have struck me by their density. Great reading. (By the way, I am 71 years old, so remember the Seventies well, but in Europe.)
I would like to thank Matt Bell for asking questions about the actual story. Every other interview is all about writing the book, but what makes Franzen interesting are the content of the books themselves, not the fact that he worked on it during covid.
673 views. Not bad. More than most writers get in America when they get interviewed. When Norman Mailer was asked his opinion of Jonathan Franzen, he said, "Well, I've read him, and I'll tell you, I got exactly the same impression from his writing as I did when reading Thomas Pynchon...what was it: either V. or Gravity's Rainbow? One of them, anyway. And that is: he is either a great writer, or he has perpetrated one of the greatest literary frauds in the publishing history. That's how I feel about him. As I said, I felt the same way when reading Pynchon. And I admit it: I can't tell whether it's genuinely great writing or he's an absolute literary fraud. I would lean toward the latter explanation. But I really just don't know."
Wow, Franzen chucked a frog in a fire? Even after hearing him say this, I find it difficult to conjure the image of a young Franzen fireside waiting for the opertunity to fling the reptile onto the ambers aglow with agony. 😮
