It is our job [as fiction writers], to create books that are compelling enough to pull a reader out of that crazy, beeping world and into a quiet place to have a real experience for twenty hours. And if enough of us can keep doing that, we’ll keep the thing going.
In this clip, Jonathan Franzen discusses his latest novel, Freedom, and what motivates him to write, the comfort of satire (and why Freedom isn’t satirical), and what his friends and family think about being described in his books. He also muses on the “safety” of fiction, the necessary loneliness of writers, and Jane Austen.
Our lead fiction reviewer Leo Robson reviews Freedom in this week’s issue of the New Statesman, concluding that “this compulsive novel is not to be ignored.”
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