Jonathan Franzen life and biography

Jonathan Franzen, a native from Western Springs, Illinois become a famous American novelist and essayist who earned a National Book Award for his third novel called The Corrections (2001), which is a sprawling, satirical family drama. For the same title, Jonathan was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His most recent novel, Freedom, was published in August 2010.

Also, Franzen's The Corrections was one of Oprah Winfrey's picks for her book club in 2001. In an interview with Powells.com, Franzen was asked to ponder his artistic validity now that his book had been christened by Oprah. Franzen replied: "The problem in this case is some of Oprah's picks. She's picked some good books, but she's picked enough schmaltzy, one dimensional ones that I cringe, myself, even though I think she's really smart and she's really fighting the good fight." To his discredit, the first half of this statement was enough for Oprah to cancel her pending interview with him, withdraw his novel from her book club, and choose only books written by dead authors for the next four years.

Author of books:
The Twenty-Seventh City (1988, novel)
Strong Motion (1992, novel)
The Corrections (2001, novel)
How to Be Alone (2002, essays)
The Discomfort Zone (2006, memoir)
Freedom (2010, novel)

Jonathan has won more important awards by the years:

1988: Whiting Writers' Award
1996: Granta's Best Of Young American Novelists
2001: National Book Award for The Corrections
2001: New York Times Best Books of the Year
2001: Salon Book Award (Fiction)
2001: New York Times Best Books of the Year for The Corrections
2002: Pulitzer Prize finalist (Fiction)
2002: James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner (Fiction) for The Corrections
2002: PEN/Faulkner Award finalist
2003: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (short list)

In 2011, it was annnounced that Franzen would write a multi-part television adaptation of The Corrections in collaboration with The Squid and The Whale director Noah Baumbach for HBO.

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