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Freedom
- Narrated by: David Ledoux
- Length: 25 hrs and 57 mins
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Freedom
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Summary
The new novel from the author of The Corrections.
Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul - the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbour who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter - environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, family man - she was doing her small part to build a better world.
But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz - outré rocker and Walter's old college friend and rival - still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to poor Patty?
Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become "a very different kind of neighbour", an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes?
In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of too much liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's intensely realized characters, as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.
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What listeners say about Freedom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hannah
- 19-07-20
This book changed my life
Franzen is undoubtedly one of the best writers of our times. If you like books about people, their lives, their decisions, their motives, their mistakes... then this is the book for you.
I read this book when it first came out and listened to it again almost 10 years later, it's still my favourite ever book and it's amazing listening to it again with more life experience, I feel I understood the characters a lot better now than I did at 19. It will make you laugh and cry and it will make you feel normal.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Deborah
- 07-03-11
The new 'Great American Novel'
This book is an intense pleasure to listen to, almost physically satisfying and one can only gawp at the deft brilliance of Franzen's writing. An absolute masterpiece, rendered even more poignant by David Ledoux's tour-de-force reading. His deliberately aggressive, at times sneering tone is just perfect for this text and I find I cannot bring myself to stop listening to it, even when there are other things I should be doing. Addictive novel, which captures the spirit of 21st century angst and makes us all wonder about how we use our relative, perceived freedom.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 30-01-21
Lifetimes to wonder at :87 in lockdown
I followed the female characters with particular interest. Franzen writes with insight and wry affection about them and understands the misunderstandings between the sexes in an unusually truthful way. I feel that the ending was a little contrived. It disappointed, but this is a minor quibble. I did not want an end . Thank you Jonathon Franzen for so many hours of living many of those lives again. Paddybiggs
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kathryn
- 14-12-16
excellent. highly recommend. classic
loved it . slightly dragged in middle but fantastic ending. great style of writing.so original and unpredictable.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jollie
- 05-09-23
Absolutely loved this
This was a fantastic listen! The story is utterly absorbing and I thought the narrator did a great job moulding each character. They were all so three dimensional: flawed, lovable, complex. Such a good book, and a great listen!
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Mal
- 08-11-10
Depressing
I gave up on this after 4 hours of unremitting bad life choices by Paddy. The novel basically describes, in minute detail, how Paddy ends up being disillusioned with her parents, her husband, her lifestyle, her friends, her love life, her husband etc etc
Just 4 hours left me depressed - 25 hours would have left me in intensive care after a suicide attempt.
NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Naomi
- 23-12-10
Freedom
I'm with Mal, another reviewer, No No No No No! Totally boring!
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Sheila
- 22-03-11
Waste of money and time
I was so excited. I had a brand new ipod and this was my first book purchased. What a clunker. I have FORCED myself to listen to 3/4 of it, but I doubt I'll ever finish it.
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