FREEDOM

There are days so bad that only their worsening, only a descent into an outright orgy of badness, can redeem them. 
- Freedom, Jonathan Franzen

So, just finished reading Freedom. Here's what I think: while it's pretty good, quite well-written, sometimes really interesting, it is by no means "a masterpiece", "the novel of the year" and I don't think it "swept everything before it in intricately observed, humane, unprejudiced armfuls." I do agree with Franzen's wry humour being "delightful" and the dialogue is at times brilliant, but I think the main reason people have so fallen over each other in praising this book to the skies is that it is so easy to read and, because it somehow got billed as great literature and you actually have to follow the thought processes of more than one person, the readers feel proud that they have picked up quite a long book by someone who isn't Lauren Weisberger, not realising that the book itself doesn't have to be great just because it is intensely readable.