OK, I like Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" and everything, but for all its posturing about making fun of the New York Times, it seems like every plot point was built off of a "hot topic" Times article from the past few years. Like "gentrification," "the difference between Generation X and 'Millenials,'" and "the evil of defense contractors." It is a great book, but let's just say I'm not surprised it's on Oprah's book club. It's very much trying to be a book for People Today(TM) about The World We Live in Today(TM). It is not making me see the world in a new way.

The strength of the book is the characters and their emotional world. However, I am often distracted by all the cliche Important Political Issues. Even the words "freedom" and "competitiveness" are used in a very Fox News vs. Jon Stewart way that is just not inventive to me.

"Freedom," "competition," "individual rights," and "capitalism" are such cliche American words anyway. When I read a book, I want to see the world in a new way, and while reading this book, I often see it in a New York Times/Slate/Gawker way that I see every day.

I did enjoy the characters and their horrible emotional worlds. It was like watching a trainwreck. And they were interesting on a personal level, albeit not on a political level.

Also, while Patty was a complete and complex female character, the major female characters (Patty, Connie, Lalitha, or even Jenna) were still all Girlfriends or Wives and were obsessed with their male companions. I wanted to see a woman character with a life of her own that was not too overtly connected to her male counterpart. It was just curious and odd how all the women were clinging to the men for dear life. I know there are exceptions to this, but they were more minor characters.

These are my cursory, unedited thoughts. I still have 20 pages to go though. Shablam.