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Farther Away

By: Jonathan Franzen
Narrated by: Jonathan Franzen, Scott Shepherd
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Publisher's summary

Jonathan Franzen’s best seller Freedom was the most-discussed novel of 2010, an ambitious and searching engagement with life in America in the 21st century. The New York Times Book Review proclaimed it “a masterpiece of American fiction.” Now a new collection of Franzen’s non-fiction brings fresh evidence of that moral intelligence, confirming his status not only as a great American novelist but also as a keen observer, social critic and self-investigator.

In Farther Away, which gathers together essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, the writer returns with renewed vigour to the themes, both human and literary, that have long preoccupied him. Whether recounting his violent encounter with bird poachers in Cyprus, examining his mixed feelings about the suicide of his friend and rival David Foster Wallace, or offering a moving and witty take on the ways that technology has changed how people express their love, these pieces deliver on Franzen’s implicit promise to conceal nothing from the reader. These essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature and with some of the most important issues of our day.

©2012 Jonathan Franzen (P)2012 HarperCollins Canada
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Masafuera

If you could sum up Farther Away in three words, what would they be?

Heartbreaking. Inspiring. Isolating.

What other book might you compare Farther Away to and why?

Robinson Crusoe, mainly because he is reading Robinson Cruose in the first essay in Masafuera but also because several essays are on books and/or nature, respectively birds. It's very much about survival.

What about Jonathan Franzen and Scott Shepherd ’s performance did you like?

I liked the storytelling of the first essay Farther Away in particular, and the commencement address because it felt like sitting around the fireplace with a friend who is telling you about a real journey and the ups and downs of it all, as well as his reflections.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The first essay stays with me a lot. It did make me cry. It's about the loss of David Foster Wallace, experiencing extreme isolation on the island, finding oneself, and reading Crusoe...all amazing

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