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    The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History
    The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History
    The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History

    Written by Jonathan Franzen

    Narrated by Jonathan Franzen

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Daring, honest, and written with the comic scrutiny and unqualified affection that marks Franzen's fiction, The Discomfort Zone tells of the formation of one young mind in the crucible of an everyday American family.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateAug 28, 2006
    ISBN9781598872798
    The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History
    Author

    Jonathan Franzen

    Jonathan Franzen’s work includes four novels (The Twenty-Seventh City, Strong Motion, The Corrections, Freedom), two collections of essays (Farther Away, How To Be Alone), a memoir (The Discomfort Zone), and, most recently, The Kraus Project. He is recognised as one of the best American writers of our age and has won many awards. He lives in New York City and Santa Cruz, California.

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    Reviews for The Discomfort Zone

    3/5

    24 ratings18 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Boring. Insufficiently dysfunctional. Ends with a tedious obsession with birdwatching.Not recommended.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Though I can tell that he's a good writer, I have a feeling I'd like his fiction more. I didn't feel there was enough story for this memoir.
    • 4/5
      As Jonathan Franzen tells it, he was the kind of boy who was afraid of spiders, school dances, urinals, music teachers, etc.. The Discomfort Zone is Franzen's memoir of growing up squirming in his oun sensitive skin.
    • 4/5
      I have the audio version of this book – 6 CDs, which was fairly accordant with the commute I’m doing lately. I almost bought the hardcover when it first came out, but there were other priorities at the time, and opted for the audio version when I started having reason to spend a lot of time in my vehicle. The downside of listening to the audio version while driving is that it’s damned difficult to jot down notes about what I just heard. Another problem is that there’s no table of contents to refer to, so trying to find a passage ‘after the fact’ is purely luck. In short, if I state something incorrectly, it’s my fault.This is the first of anything I’ve ‘read’ by Mr. Franzen, and I was not disappointed. In a way, I’m very glad I got the audio version, because he speaks impeccable German, and quoted several passages from Spinoza and Kafka (I think). His diction is clear, and it seemed to me that he felt more comfortable speaking the German language than speaking English. I believe this is common among authors, as they tend to be writers and not orators. Regardless, he speaks well and with enough vocal inflection that one does not get bored with the presentation.I particularly enjoyed hearing his trials and tribulations at naming birds. He always got them wrong, and other bird watchers were quick to correct him in a manner that caused him a bit of frustration and embarrassment. “Humiliation” might be a more appropriate word. In fact, scenarios like that are pretty much the theme of his story. That is not to say his stories are cookie-cutter in format, but there is a bit of predictability to them, although you’re never sure just how it’s going to come about.I recommend this book, as I enjoyed it quite a lot. I’ll be looking for more books that he’s written, mostly because of the relaxed form of his writing, despite how it came across in the audio version.
    • 3/5
      Just because it's a book doesn't mean you have to read all of it. As far as I can tell there are three parts to this: a stunning and completely self-contained first chapter on putting his mother's house for sale after her death, an incredibly long series of chapters on his church youth group, and the whole bird watching thing at the end. I highly recommend the first chapter (he even gives it a punchy little conclusion in the humorous style of The Corrections). But there's no need to read the rest of it. He does the same thing nearly every other narrator does in 1st person accounts that makes them unworthy of anyone's time: NOTHING. Books written in the first person where the narrator does absolutely nothing except watch (and expose) the actions of other are neither credible nor fun to read. They are the ultimate unreliable narrator because it's inconceivable they would have any friends at all if they were so inert at the time these events are taking place. Nothing happens at camp, nothing happens while he's bird watching, nothing happens growing up. Except every man has to discuss his masturbatory habits after Portnoy's Complaint came out, and here is his contribution to the genre. Why do men talk about that as if it's important? You're not Wilt Chamberlain if your only partner is yourself.
    • 3/5
      Because The Corrections was one of my favorite books, I thought I would enjoy this memoir about Franzen growing up in St. Louis. The beginning, the narrator returning home to sell the family home after the death of his mother, had promise: a good narrative voice and the kind of reflection that I like to try and write myself. The book however took too much time with the author's thoughts on his love of Peanuts - (the cartoon) , his Christian fellowship experiences,and birds. Some high school pranks were interesting and his quest for losing his virginity seems tied to the writing of Kafka, but often I was just reading to finish. What we want to hear about - his relationship with his wife and others is only briefly detailed. Overall I guess this brings a nice background to the understanding of the author, but I can't say that I like the author more for reading this. I guess I have to admire Franzsen for his willingness to discuss his foibles.
    • 3/5
      Franzen delivers, as always, with clear, vocabulary rich descriptiveness. I could have done with less German.
    • 3/5
      The protagonist is hard to identify with, but there is a lot to laugh on some pages and there's a nice analysis of cartoons (Charlie Schulz Peanuts) and Franz Kafka. A lot of other pages are hard to get through. The protagonist ends up as a birdwatcher, maybe that's the main theme of the book: someone who looks at birds from a distance instead of flying his own wings.
    • 3/5
      3.25 starsThis is a series of little snapshots of the author's life, mostly when he was a child or teenager, but it does extend a little beyond that. It's not really a complete bio, it is just vignettes. I was really mixed, there were chapters I liked – my favourite was the bird chapter – and others that were just o.k., maybe a little boring. So, for me, it really varied, depending on what story he was telling whether I really liked it or not. So, my rating varies by chapter. The bird chapter would be a 4, the first two chapters, would be a 3.5, and the other three chapters are just a 3 for me. I figure that averages to about 3.25.
    • 1/5
      I did not enjoy this book much at all. I am a newcomer to Franzen's writing; I just thought the book sounded interesting. However, Franzen just seems to ramble on an on, talking about one event, then going on for pages with his observations and neuroses, then finally coming back to what he was originally discussing. My other issue is that, like one other reviewer mentioned, Franzen rarely goes into a whole lot of detail about any one thing, and when he does there is a focus on aspects that seem irrelevant. The main thing in my head throughout his book was "who cares?" I believe that "who cares?" is a pretty accurate 2-word summary of this entire book. One thing I did like, though, was the cover. It was very intriguing. But I am unlikely to read anything else by Franzen.
    • 2/5
      Mishmash of remembered snippets of the author's past, enough to make a book to tie him over to another book.
    • 4/5
      I do love Jonathan Franzen, and this love started with How to Be Alone. There was something about those essays which suggested a very quiet, private struggle, of which just enough was made public, and just enough kept private. I also thought he was one of the more seriously brave writers I had read, which hinged mostly on his critique of sex advice columnists. Although he didn't say anything controversial, the quiet sureness with which he wrote about this segment of "public information" as an actual industry which traded on the insecurities of its readers / consumers was something which instilled confidence in him as a thinker. But this is a review of The Discomfort Zone. In which I didn't see as much quiet strength as I did in HTBA, but I did feel a vicarious thrill when I read one essay about his time in a non-midwestern American city, and remembered that it was at that time he sent a friend of a mine a postcard from that city, in light of a letter she had sent to him, after having read The Corrections. I also felt a strong shock of recognition as I read his descriptions of the feelings of disconnect he felt around his family. And I recognized almost every one of his descriptions of Charles Schulz's Peanuts strips within the first sentence.
    • 2/5
      I read the author's fictionThe Corrections (read 2 Jan 2002) and Freedom (read 6 Oct 2010) and thought his account of growing up might be of interest. He grew up in Webster Groves, Mo. and he tells of his parents and brothers and of his not very interesting high school life--very different from more mundane, less intellectual accounts of high school accounts--and silly pranks he and his friends indulged in. He tells some of his time at Swarthmore and of his marriage and divorce, and a lot of talk about birding which could only be of interest to birders--which I am not. I admit I was mostly bored by the account and could not empathize with his conflicts with hie right-thinking parents.
    • 2/5
      What the hell, Franzen. I love your fiction! Strong Motion was fantastic. The Twenty-Seventh City is one of the best first novels I’ve ever read. When I got done reading The Corrections I missed the characters for months. Actively missed them! But your fiction? God damn, I hate it.I read How to Be Alone (his collection of essays) years ago and I hated it. I guess I though The Discomfort Zone would be different, or maybe I just forgot how much I hated How to Be Alone.Part of the problem is that you think you’re so damn clever. And the thing is, I think you’re damn clever! But your smugness is just a huge turn off. Your privilege is disgusting – especially in the chapter where you go on and on about how obnoxious and annoying it was to have to listen to people asking for donations after Hurricane Katrina. Yes, I get that you think FEMA should have done a better job doing . . . well, their job. But god damn. An entire chapter, 1 of 8 chapters in the whole book, about how annoyed you were to have to listen to aide commercials?!Yes, yes, I’m simplifying that chapter. Yes, I’m exaggerating. But here’s what you need to know: Franzen is a smug, self-satisfied liberal who is entirely too proud of being such. I do not want him on my team. From now on, I’ll be sticking to his fiction.
    • 4/5
      I am impressed by anyone who can so unflinchingly look at their adolescence with all the earnest passions and self importance of that age. Continue to be impressed with all of Franzen’s work that I read.
    • 4/5
      Just finished listening t this on audio and found it quite enjoyable. An episodic and disjointed look at Franzen's life. I particularly enjoyed the pieces on Mutton and Fellowship, as well as Franzen's attempts to secure a girlfriend abroad. I certainly would actually like to read some Franzen now and look forward to that.
    • 3/5
      I found this memoir to be choppy and disconnected, more like a series of articles than a sustained narrative. The writing is clear and well-executed, Franzen's voice is unique and the stories approachable. I want to read The Corrections next, I've heard good things about it.
    • 3/5
      Interesting memoir in which Franzen focuses on his childhood and youth through his college years.