Jonathan Franzen
Seattle Arts & Lectures begins its fall series with President Obamas favorite beach readFreedom (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28), by Jonathan Franzen. Have we read it? No, weve been too busy withdrawing combat troops from Iraq and fixing our broken economy. The 562-page novel charts the various grievances, memories, and connections among a family in St. Paul, Minnesota. Are the Berglunds guilty liberals or closet conservatives, gentrifying yuppies or destroyers of community? Possibly all those things at the same time. Franzen, in his first novel since 2001s The Corrections, is again aiming big, addressing the economy, politics, the environment, and even the Iraq War. The title is both a concept and a piece of disputed turfa battleground where swollen notions of personal liberty clash with fragile social bonds. BRIAN MILLER
Tue., Sept. 14, 7:30 p.m., 2010
