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Feministe Book Club: Freedom and Feminism

Jill

It seems like I can’t get on the subway without seeing someone lugging Freedom around. I finished it a couple of weeks ago, and found the gender dynamics of the book pretty interesting. Are there any other Feministe readers who would be interested in having a book-club-style chat about the novel? Or, if not about the whole novel, about this section, which was excerpted in the New Yorker (and which, readers should be warned, is about sexual assault)?

If there’s enough interest, I’ll set up a day and time.

20 thoughts on Feministe Book Club: <i>Freedom</i> and Feminism

  1. I haven’t read the novel but please please please a book club about that excerpt. There’s a lot to discuss in that part alone.

  3. It’s been taking me a while to read this on my iPhone kindle app. I need a real Kindle/iPad.

    Isn’t Franzen really woman-unfriendly IRL? He made some pretty sexist comments IIRC when Oprah picked The Corrections as a book club selection back in 2001.

  5. Regarding the excerpt, it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a strictly rational stance when issues this emotionally charged comes to light. And yet laws and a whole system are drawn up as though this is possible.

  7. I’m over halfway through the book and would love to talk about it with fellow feminists. I was a bit wary of it after the fracas about Franzen’s coverage (vs. coverage of female writers), but I actually think he has a very complex gender dynamic in the novel. Let me know if you set it up and how it can be accessed.

  9. I finished the book a while back, and I’d love to discuss it. I see it everywhere, and yet none of my hyper-literate friends reads Franzen.

  10. Long-time reader, first-time poster here – I’d love to have a book club! And would love to suggest some fabulous restaurants in Carroll Gardens to host it 🙂

    1. YES! I think we’ll have to do the club online so that all interested parties can participate, but I would support a prep session over some food in the CG 🙂

  11. I finished it a while ago and the more I think about it, the more I’m dying to talk about it with people, but no one’s done yet! I’d love to discuss the entire book, but I’d be interested even if we only covered the one section.

  12. I tend to skip the logistics and go straight to the food…oops. Blame it on Prime Meats, or Buttermilk Channel, etc. etc.

  13. I think a book club is an excellent idea. I’m reading the excerpt now and I’m having a hard time distinguishing between personal narrative and bullying and apologia.
    I would love to hear how others are reading it.

  15. Count me in, too! That excerpt has a lot in it… I haven’t read the full book yet, though I am planning on it!

  17. Will I be able to complain bitterly about his writing style or will this be a strictly idea based discussion? 🙂

  18. Yes, this sounds great. I’m dying to talk about the book, and many of my feminist friends are skipping it. Count me in.

  19. I found this book to be completely overrated. The writing is mediocore at best. I wish I would have spent my time reading something else. Anyone have any good feminist suggestions?

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