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** spoiler alert ** Frank, honest, sad yet not in any way melodramatic. These are, for me, what make Freedom stands out from the other American contemporary novels that emphatically talk about dysfunctional families without eliciting reactions from your tear ducts. Franzen made a lot of sense when he expressed his concern over the inclusion of The Corrections among Oprah's books because most of Oprah’s books are told in the point of view of women and so they are womanly in perspectives and so they are read mostly by women. Franzen’s storytelling is direct, cerebral and not in any way squeamish when it comes to sex, sexual organs and sexual acts. These in-your-face 21st-century yet sensible frankness differentiates him from other male authors delving in the same theme - American family - like Pat Conroy or Wally Lamb. For example is this part when Walter is preparing for a day after having sex with his mistress-assistant Lalitha:”It would have been useful to be able to add that there was nothing between him and his assistant, but in fact, his hands and face and nose were so impregnated with the smell of her vagina that it persisted faintly even after showering.�� Glorious. Heavenly. I mean the prose.

To say that Freedom is just about a dysfunctional family is an oversimplification of this novel's theme. My take is that it is more of a marital journey of the Berglund couple, Walter and Patty, and how their marriage affects the marriage of their son, Joey, to their neighbor’s daughter, Connie and her family. The mistakes made in the previous generation affect the next ones. The things we saw in our parents, we try to recreate with our kids. There is no school for parenting. All of us, parents, went into it, without any classroom lectures. We thought that since we came out okay, if we use the same formula our parents used to us, our kids would turn out okay too. Little did we know that things change and what we saw in our parents might no longer be applicable for us to use to our children. “When I was your age…�� becomes our opening statement in every guidance session we have with our kids, only to hear from them “Things have changed, daddy.��

Like The Corrections, Franzen presents the family amidst the changing world: politics, trade, culture and global terrorism. I thought that I would not see anything new until Franzen made us of the environmental issues as his very novel backdrop. The way that he interwoven these �� simple American family, global and local issues plus the environment �� is so brilliant you can’t help but admire his storytelling prowess that is so distinctly Franzen. When I read in Wiki that President Obama read this book during his last summer break, I believed it. This book is worth reading by every American citizen who wants to be inspired by the story of this Berglund couple. Oh, there is nothing grandiose or extraordinary about them. They are just your typical married Americans. But it will give you that feeling that what you are going through in your life is not something that you go through alone. Also, the story ends at the beginning of Obama administration so everything was positive and hopeful.

Now if only there is a similar book that deals about Filipino families. Argggh.