In The End of the End of the Earth, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes - both human and literary - that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we've come to expect from Franzen. Taken together, 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, made more pressing by the current political milieu. The End of the End of the Earth is remarkable, provocative, and necessary.
Jonathan Franzen
? Janet Fine
"The work of a writer at the top of his game-limber and lovely, delivering deep insights with delicacy and grace." -Sarah Crown, The Guardian
"Franzen, unlike many, listens. It's what makes him one of the best living writers of fictional dialogue, and it's what makes his arguments productively provocative." -Charles Arrowsmith, The Washington Post
"[Franzen's] turning over rocks along the shore and finding noteworthy details beneath." -Bill McKibben, The New York Times Book Review
"If, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, the "test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function", then Franzen has passed with flying colours." -Andrew Gallix, The Irish Times
"The End of the End of the Earth feels carefully crafted around a central concern: 'How do we find meaning in our actions when the world seems to be coming to an end?' . . . Franzen proves himself up to the challenge of the essay as a form, as 'something hazarded, not definitive, not authoritative,' and of a subject so vast and important that it affects us all. Ignore the tweets, read the book." -Carl Wilkinson, Financial Times
"Franzen, unlike many, listens. It's what makes him one of the best living writers of fictional dialogue, and it's what makes his arguments productively provocative." -Charles Arrowsmith, The Washington Post
"[Franzen's] turning over rocks along the shore and finding noteworthy details beneath." -Bill McKibben, The New York Times Book Review
"If, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, the "test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function", then Franzen has passed with flying colours." -Andrew Gallix, The Irish Times
"The End of the End of the Earth feels carefully crafted around a central concern: 'How do we find meaning in our actions when the world seems to be coming to an end?' . . . Franzen proves himself up to the challenge of the essay as a form, as 'something hazarded, not definitive, not authoritative,' and of a subject so vast and important that it affects us all. Ignore the tweets, read the book." -Carl Wilkinson, Financial Times