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Franzen Thinks Big about Floridian Plovers and Chinese Gulls
Filed under: Jonathans are Illuminated Tagged: Calvin Trillin, Christina Stead, David Remnick, E. M. Forster, Graham Greene, Jane Smiley, Jonathan Franzen, Paul Muldoon
Martin Schneider writes:
The website bigthink.com has just put up a bunch of entertaining clips featuring the full-throated inflections of Jonathan Franzen. There’s one on his difficulties accepting Oprah’s endorsement in 2001, a pair on over- (Forster, Greene) and underrated (Smiley, Stead) books, and a few on China. And there are some I haven’t even mentioned!
I’m a recent devotee of birdwatching, so I choose to single out Franzen’s “Idea” in which he reads a portion of his glum and illuminating essay, “My Bird Problem,” (abstract only) which first appeared in the August 8, 2005, issue of The New Yorker:
I took up birdwatching after this essay was published, so I’m grateful for the reminder!
Other New Yorker luminaries featured on bigthink.com include David Remnick (as we have already pointed out), Calvin Trillin, and Paul Muldoon.
