Corrections - Book Review

Short review of Corrections

Corrections is this highly acclaimed book which came out 3-4 years back. I have been wanting to pick it up and finally got a used hardbound book in great condition for around Rs100. Now after reading I am thinking of selling it back, probably in weight!!

Corrections is about a dysfunctional family in Suburban U.S. That one line describes the book quite neatly. You practically know who the characters are going to be – elderly parents in St.James (Kansas) with the old man suffering from Parkinson’s, and the old lady living out delusions of her own; elderly son who is financially well off and living in New York and is bordering on depression encouraged by a wife who doesn’t like his hobbies or his parents; second son who teaches literature at college and has lost tenure after seducing a young student and then escapes to Lithuania to help in defrauding Western investors; daughter, an upmarket chef marries an older guy followed by a break up, has a lesbian lover and finally to top it up ends up having an affair with both a husband and wife.

All these are interesting characters if it were a short 250 page book, not a 550 page tome. There are parts which are absolute tedium - you are also forced to endure a 10 page experience and conversation with a turd by the old man; come on, I know he has Parkinson’s and dementia, can we get on with the story. Why can’t editors nowadays cut short books keeping in mind reading tastes and time. We are not talking War and Peace here. The best part of the book is the section where the daughter seduces both the wife and the husband. Any prurient and it would have ended up in Letters to Penthouse. If any of you has the time and the inclination, just quickly read through this section and dump the book.

I don’t know why I picked up this book – what do I know or need to or want to know about dysfunctional families, that too in the U.S. I also feel that the whole dysfunctional family thing is a piece of nonsense. Every other family I see in India is dysfunctional. Only a vastly hypochondriac society like U.S can give it a name like that and have entire literary sub-genres devoted to it. The writing too is not gripping. If the story is not interesting, atleast the writing better be. If you want to read a really good book in this genre, with a great voice, please do read Vernon God Little and look no further.

At least one good has come out it, I thought I will pick up some books by Philip Roth, John Updike (Rabbit series) but have decided to give up the whole idea. I don’t need any more of this shit (pun intended), literally (pun intended again).