Franzen was also recently featured on the cover of Time magazine, along with the heading "Great American Novelist."
In addition, Freedom was selected as the most recent Oprah's Book Club selection (one of the few books that probably didn't need Oprah's help in getting any extra attention...). You may remember that Jonathan Franzen pissed off Oprah back in 2001 when she selected his previous novel The Corrections for her club, and then he was kind of uneasy about the selection. He essentially said he didn't want his book associated with the "schmaltzy, one-dimensional" novels Oprah had selected in the past (oh snap!). He also said he was worried that the Oprah book club logo on the cover would dissuade men from reading it (though, really, the kind of guys that would be like "Eww, this is an Oprah book; and Oprah books are for girls!!" are probably not the type of guys reading The Corrections in the first place). Oprah was pissed by his comments and his invitation to appear on her show was rescinded and she moved on to the next book. And now, nine years later, Oprah has selected the latest novel from the man that dared to cross her. I didn't think it was possible for Oprah to forgive and forget. I figured she would sooner spontaneously combust than to let go of a grudge.
Now, I like Jonathan Franzen. I have not yet read Freedom, but I plan to in the near future (it's en route to my apartment as we speak, in a package from the much-loved Powell's Books), and I imagine it is in fact quite good. My issue is not with Franzen or Freedom; I just find all the recent hullabaloo a bit much (book of the century?! Come on. Make that assessment in 2100).
Anyway, Eagan and I were excited to see him speak at the National Book Festival this past weekend. One thing that struck me (completely unrelated to his book or what he was saying during his talk) was what he was wearing. Jonathan Franzen wore a gray button-up long-sleeved shirt, heavy jeans, and boots. In 93 degree weather. In a humid tent. What are you crazy?! In Freedom, Franzen wrote this line about DC: "The pedestrians in every neighborhood all seemed to have taken the same dowdiness pills. As if individual style were a volatile substance that evaporated in the vacuity of D.C.'s sidewalks and infernally wide squares." Oh snap! [One DC blogger retorted that maybe our "dowdiness pills" were "made by the same Big Pharma conglomerate that ships the condescension pills to Manhattan."]. While I disagree with that line from Freedom (there's lots of very stylish people in DC. Maybe he's just looking on the Hill), if the opposite of dowdiness is burning up in woefully inappropriate clothes for the weather, then so be it and bring on the dowdiness.
I also noticed that the gray button-up shirt he was wearing appeared to be the same shirt he wore on the cover of Time magazine. When I got home, I googled the Time magazine cover to see.
=
Match!
And then I discovered that Jonathan Franzen apparently owns one shirt*:
Putting a jacket over it doesn't trick us, Jonathan.
Putting a sweater over the same shirt you wear over and over again = the opposite of dowdiness.
I'd recognize that collar anywhere!
*Whatever you do, do not do a Google image search of Jonathan Franzen. Otherwise you will actually see him wearing other shirts...but not that many more.
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i can't help but wonder if jonathan jones meant decade, as opposed to century. i mean, really- claiming any book as the book of the century is ridiculous.
ReplyDeletei also had a close look at the shirt he's wearing in the article. not likely the same, but close. damn close.
I was hoping maybe that his statement was lost in translation, resulting from a confusion on my part due to the metric system. Haha. Sadly, he did in fact say century. Which is universally 100 years. Though I do hope he meant decade.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that the shirt Franzen is wearing in the article is very close. I think this particular shirt might be slightly more blue than gray, and it has white buttons (I have become an expert on Franzen's One Shirt!). So while it's not THE shirt, it's very similar. He's definitely not very creative when it comes to his shirt selection. And that jean jacket sure is something...