This novel is never constrained by its title-theme. In fact, it takes a while for the theme to even emerge. Slowly the realisation dawns that freedom is something that binds and stifles people rather than something simple and easily attained. The characters are so very free in their middle class, educated American suburbia that they cannot move or grow or make decisions.

This reversal of common sense helps to make the novel intriguing at every turn. Although it is predominantly a character-driven tale it also encounters politics and environmentalism as its characters become involved in these things. Here again there is not a simple engagement with one point of view. Like the novel, the characters behave in the opposite of common sense, destroying the environment to try and sustain it in the long term. This could seem ridiculous but Franzen handles it in a way that reveals the complexities of modern environmentalism and the difficulties of knowing what is right.

The story begins with Patty Berglund and her family. At the start of the novel their life seems idyllic. They really have attained the American dream. They have a house in the suburbs and two small children. Patty is happy and a good mother. They do DIY and their house was the first to begin the process of gentrification on their street. It is only as time passes that things start to unravel. Patty begins to perpetuate the traits of her parents and her husband Walter starts to fall into the patterns of his family.

This is one of the ways in which freedom is undermined in the novel. There are countless other ways and none of them are laboured. Franzen never falls into the trap of didacticism. He lets his characters show freedom and its obverse rather than arguing about what freedom is or is not.

The opening of the novel is brief. It gives a lot of information in a small space of time. It sets the scene and then the narrative changes focus and tone as Franzen goes back and fills in all the gaps. He shows everything going wrong after an opening vignette of what is apparently domestic bliss. The story goes back and explores Patty’s childhood. A basketball champion in a family of arts enthusiasts. It shows the ways in which she is made to feel insecure and worthless. It also shows Walter’s origins as the responsible middle son of a father who drinks and a mother who has to keep everything going out of a family loyalty that gives nothing back to her.

Many of Franzen’s characters are not particularly sympathetic. It is to his credit that he makes them sympathetic through his way of writing. He gives them humanity and shows what a burden that can be. The way in which Franzen switches points of view throughout the novel adds depth to characters and allows him to tell one side of the story and then enrich it with a counter view. This powerful building up of a whole world, with different points of view and different ways of understanding motivations, lends the story weight. Even so, the book is an enjoyable and easy read. It’s hard to put it down but by the time its over the world seems more interesting and complex but a little less free.

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