If you liked
Books like The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen
The Corrections is the Jonathan Franzen novel that made him a literary event, a Midwestern family circling one last Christmas as the parents fail and the grown kids flail. It is sharp, sprawling and merciless about the American family. If you want more big, smart novels about parents and children, read on.
The shortlist
What to read next
Crossroadsby Jonathan Franzen
“Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen 2021 review. The Hildebrandt family across the first months of 1971 in suburban Chicago. Franzen's structural return to form and first book of the Key trilogy.”
The Dutch Houseby Ann Patchett
“The Dutch House by Ann Patchett 2019 review. A brother and sister exiled from their childhood home park on the curb across the street for fifty years. Pulitzer Prize finalist.”
Olive Kitteridgeby Elizabeth Strout
“Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 2008 review. A retired Maine math teacher across thirteen interlinked stories. Pulitzer Prize 2009 and canonical contemporary American interconnected-novels project.”
A Visit from the Goon Squadby Jennifer Egan
“A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 2010 review. An interconnected novel about a music-industry executive, his assistant, and the people their lives touch across forty years. Pulitzer Prize 2011 and the canonical postmodern American family novel of its decade.”
White Teethby Zadie Smith
“White Teeth by Zadie Smith 2000 review. The friendship between Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal, two London immigrants whose families collide across half a century. The 1999 Whitbread debut that announced one of the most important contemporary British novelists.”
Hello Beautifulby Ann Napolitano
“Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano 2023 review. Four sisters in 1980s Chicago and the graduate-student basketball player who marries into the family. Napolitano's breakout literary commercial novel.”
FAQ
Common questions about The Corrections read-alikes
- I want more Jonathan Franzen.
- Crossroads is the recent one, the first of a planned trilogy centered on a pastor's family in the early 1970s, and many readers think it is his warmest, best-controlled book. If The Corrections hooked you, that is the next Franzen to read.
- What is the closest family novel here?
- The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. It is quieter than Franzen but just as sharp on siblings, inheritance and the long reach of a childhood home. A more forgiving version of the same American-family subject.
- I want the big, ambitious, many-voiced novel.
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and White Teeth by Zadie Smith both do the sprawling, structurally inventive social novel that Franzen does. Egan is more experimental, Smith more comic, both are dazzling.
- I want the emotional payoff without the acid.
- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano hit many of the same family notes with more tenderness. Good picks if Franzen's cynicism was the part you could do with less of.
The original