Free for what?

At the center of Jonathan Fran­zen's much anticipated fourth novel are four characters. Richard Katz is a rock star who roams the world and amorally enjoys all the benefits of rock stardom, which include promiscuously using women. The other three characters come from one family: Walter Berglund, his spouse Patty Berg­lund and their son, Joey. The Berg­lunds are Minnesotans of Lutheran background and Scandinavian extraction—Lake Wobe­gon­ians adrift in a post­religious age. Like Richard the rock star, they are as cursed as they are blessed by a surfeit of freedom.

Joey's freedom is that of a college student unencumbered by adult responsibilities. Joey is free to pursue various women even as he keeps his high school girlfriend waiting, should he ever want to return to her. He also enjoys the freedom of affluence, visiting the home of a powerful politician and tony New York settings on holiday breaks. Joey is the book's cipher of entitlement, the shining but shallow product of affluence and freedom.

Patty's freedom is that of a homemaker after the children have left the nest. She spends her copious free time reading novels, pursuing an extramarital affair and eventually wallowing in a depression she cannot escape. Patty is the character most consciously—and agonizingly—aware of the emptiness that blank freedom brings.