Jonathan Franzen

Would novelists want to be friends with Humbert Humbert?

2013-05-16 13:52:00

In a widely circulated interview with Publishers Weekly, writer Claire Messud was asked if she would want to be friends with the protagonist of her new novel, "The Woman Upstairs." She responded with frustration: "For heaven’s sake, what kind of...

Review: 'How to Live With Your Parents' is a by-the-manual comedy

2013-04-03 08:00:00

Some fine actors have contracted to appear in "How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)," a multi-generational family comedy premiering Wednesday night on ABC. It should do their careers no lasting harm. It is the sort of neither-here-...

Philip Roth gets 'Unmasked' on PBS -- or does he?

2013-03-27 13:47:00

I’m of two minds about “Philip Roth: Unmasked,” the “American Masters” documentary that airs Friday night on PBS. On the one hand, it’s always a pleasure to hear Roth, who turned 80 this month and recently announced...

Catherine Opie's documentary photography is on display

2013-01-27 08:00:00

The room is arranged like a gallery, hung with photographs of various sizes and shapes, framed and unframed, surrounding the artist Catherine Opie, who looks pleased as she observes from a rocking chair. This studio built behind her house in West...

George Saunders hasn't written a novel, and I don't care

2013-01-24 11:28:00

When I was a 30-year-old MFA student just starting the Creative Writing program in fiction at UC Irvine, I sat down with my advisor. So, she asked me, what are your plans for your two years here? Well, I said, I figure I’ll write a collection of...

D.T. Max takes on the life of David Foster Wallace

2012-09-09 00:00:00

D.T. Max knew what he was getting into when he decided to write a biography of David Foster Wallace. In March 2009, he published a long piece in the New Yorker about Wallace's suicide and the author's inability to finish "The Pale King," the novel left...

Critic's Notebook: Essays tiptoe up to grab us unawares

2012-06-10 00:00:00

Essays sneak up on us. They are — or often feel — accidental: the record of a writer wrestling with an idea, an observation, a slice of experience, of a writer figuring it out. They have a conditional quality, as if they could go in any...

Oprah relaunches book club, saying 'I still believe in books'

2012-06-01 16:35:41

Most interesting comment thread of the day, courtesy Helen DeWitt

2012-05-16 21:36:31

Sarajevo with tears: Another walk down Logavina Street

2012-05-16 16:35:42

On Sunday: Alain Mabanckou, Jonathan Franzen and lumber as history

2012-04-27 16:35:22

Mark Taper Forum's 'Clybourne Park' Broadway run derailed

2012-02-01 16:33:14

Author Jonathan Franzen.

2012-07-05 00:00:00

"Farther Away" promises to be another thought-provoking essay collection by the author of the novel, "Freedom." Franzen always brings an intelligent and eloquent perspective to the pressing issues of the 21st century. -Fromme

2012-02-14 17:10:00

"Freedom" author Jonathan Franzen .

2011-04-26 00:00:00