Vindicated!

I have long held that Jonathan Franzen is an asshole.
I read The Corrections when it came out. (I'd like to take a moment to note, here, that as of this posting, one could buy a used hardcover from Amazon marketplace for $0.01.)
I've read a lot of his stuff in the New Yorker. I'm not going to argue that he knows how to write.

My point, rather, is that he is an ASSHOLE. This impression comes both from his public antics (ahem, Oprah) and from the occasions when I've been lucky enough to meet him and to listen to the way he answers questions from audience members. It's bad form to get up on stage when you're being paid several thousand dollars to talk for half an hour and mumble, "I wrote this on the train on the way up here." It's silly to cultivate the two-day stubble in all your publicity photos and public appearances. And it's just not nice to interrupt people when they're speaking.

People tend to argue with me. "What did he do to you?" they might ask.
But now, finally, someone agrees with me. I might have to read this book.