Franzen in the tradition of the great naturalists - Flaubert, Stendahl, Tolstoy

As foreseen, Patty has sex with Richard and of course she's excited by him in ways she never has been by her kind and tepid husband, Walter. And of course, nice person that she is, she's torn by guilt and remorse - continues to pursue Richard, lies to Walter, gets deeper into drink, grows farther from her children. Franzen gives a terrific account of her visit to daughter at college - filled with tension and estrangement. Patty has managed, in some ways, to replicate the failures of her own mother. Literary references and echoes abound: DH Lawrence and War and Peace, in particular. Then moves onto 2nd section of the book, 2004, this one evidently more focused on Richard and his waning career as a musician - a brief late-life success as an indie-rocker, based on album Nameless Lake inspired by his wistful longing for Patty (she's well aware of the connection but of course the hapless Richard is not). Richard, having burned through the earnings of his brief success, is back to building rooftop decks for Tribeca plutocrats. And Patty and Walter have moved from St Paul to Georgetown - which evidenty will be the first (for final?) stage in their tragic downfall. Sorry to dwell so much on plot here - but Franzen among contemporary writers really thinks about plot and about character as well. Though some fault him for over-writing, and he even jokes himself about getting the story moving, I find "Freedom" really compelling and completely credible. His characters are people we've all known and their agonies are those we've all experienced. So much of literature today is drawn from the exotic - it's as if few are willing or able to examine our own time and place unless in a satiric or ironic format. Franzen - like very few others (Joseph O'Neil may be one) - is truly in the tradition of the great naturalists, Flaubert, Stendahl, Tolstoy.