Freedom

Jonathan Franzen’s novel Freedom, published in 2010, follows the Berglund family of St. Paul, Minnesota, across several decades. Patty, a former college basketball star, and Walter, an earnest environmental lawyer, anchor the book, along with their children Jessica and Joey, and Walter’s best friend Richard Katz, a misanthropic indie rock musician. The narrative opens with a third-person summary of the Berglunds as neighbors before shifting into Patty’s first-person autobiography, written at her therapist’s suggestion under the title “Mistakes Were Made.” The novel’s structure is distinctive: it is divided into chapters that often take a single character’s perspective, including a long section centered on Joey’s college years and his troubling relationship with his roommate’s sister, and a chapter titled “2004” that tracks Richard Katz’s European tour. A recurring concern is the tension between personal freedom and obligation, explored through Walter’s work for the Cerulean Mountain Trust, a conservation group backed by a Texas billionaire, and his plan to create a nature preserve in West Virginia by displacing a family that has lived there for generations. Patty’s competitive past, her depression, and her affair with Richard form the emotional core of the book. Freedom is often described as a social novel about the American middle class, marriage, and the environmental movement, and it was a critical and commercial success, making Franzen a prominent figure in contemporary literary fiction.