Franzen's women: strong, competitive, attractive - too subservient?

The next section of Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" belongs to Walter, as we travel with him and his beautiful assistant, Lalitha, through W. Va. where they complete the sleazy deal to save the wilderness by opening it up to coal mining. Walter is a somewhat confusing character, less well realized than the others in this book. As a college student he was a nebish and generally unimpressive - winning the prize, Patty, through his dogged devotion and persistence. It's odd, then, that as a 47-year-old he's testy and argumentative - perhaps we're to see this as the effects of a ruined marriage (Patty's gotten pretty testy herself). Also puzzling as to why he's so attractive to Lalitha. Bit of an aging male fantasy there - also in the case of the washed-up musician, Richard Katz, although there at least there's the attraction to a one-time celebrity in a hip field. The magnetic attraction of these older guys is one of the flaws of this novel and in Franzen's thinking. But not a fatal flaw. It's still a pretty powerful section of the novel, as we get great description of the wracked WVA landscape and of some of its scarier inhabitants. Subtheme is son Joey's ongoing relationship with the devoted, nearly Stepford-wife-devoted, girlfriend, Connie, who come to see him in NYC over xmas break. Praise for Franzen is immense, deserved, but not universal, and I think some of the issue may be women uncomfortable with the role women play in his books - strong characters, competitive, attractive - but ultimately, too subservient and wracked by guilt. We'll see how this plays out, especially with Patty, the most attractive and sympathetic character in this cast.