Poignant, witty and precise, Franzen guarantees you will laugh, snort, chuckle, choke up and even cry as you experience the Lambert family's absurd yet powerful decomposition.

As Alfred, the father, gradually slips into dementia, his wife, two sons and daughter must face their own foibles and "get it together". Rather than attempting a solely physical approach to the noble suffering of this debilitating disease, Franzen portrays the inner conversations and experiences of each character that displays the anxious, selfish, controlling, ludicrous, escapist and alternative coping mechanisms that drive individual and family life in such a devastating situation.

Meet Alfred who is mentally, and consequently emotionally, disintegrating even as his famous invention is being used as a revolutionary and perhaps dangerous medical treatment. Gary, the yuppie model of success, realizes the company is giving his Dad a raw deal on his patent for this vital discovery but can't get anyone to listen. Much of his effort is dispersed into imagining his marriage is dissolving. Chip, a pompous academic professor, loses his chance at tenure for breaking a rule that he wrote with other administrators and thereafter always seems ten steps behind creating a screenplay wonder. Denise is a famous, classy chef whose romantic life is in shambles but who maintains an independent stance until she can no longer cope with it all. All are riddled with guilt at their neglect of their needy and demanding parents, however half-an-hour with Mom and Dad evokes a claustrophobic response, to say the least. This becomes climactic as Alfred's disease progresses.

Midwest dowdiness, ribald preoccupation with sex, satirical play on the "perfect" family Chirstmas, furious attempts to avoid any closeness, obsession with bodily functions and parts, the most penetrating denial, and much, much more fill all 528 pages of this modern American, comical nightmare. Futile promises and attempts at change evolve into more mature, but definitely not idealistic, ways of living life to the full. The rich character portrayals, minutely detailed scenes and slowly but potently building plots and subplots keep driving the reader farther and farther until one absolutely must finish this amazing story.

Mark my words: This is a future award winner! No matter how you love, pity and even hate some of these scenes or people, you will have to give high praise to this author who hasn't missed a beat in depicting the multiple facets of mental, emotional and physical disease, with its accompanying funny and furious "corrections".

What a winner!