SOURCE: Greer, Bonnie. “Magnum Oprah: The Great American Novel.” New Statesman 131, no. 4570 (7 January 2002): 30, 32.

In the following review of The Corrections, Greer discusses the classification of the book as “high literary art” and comments on the tumult over Franzen's rejection of the book as a selection for the Oprah Winfrey book club.

There is no question that The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen is an important book, perhaps even a landmark one. But not for the reasons it is being praised.

Once again, we are being presented with that mythical beast, that holy of holies—“The Great American Novel”. No other country on earth gives its writers the challenge of setting its nationhood down in words. On one level, this is a noble task, the testament of a democracy that takes pride in its ability to reinvent itself constantly. On another level, it is the literary equivalent of “go west...