自由word

简介
1959年生于伊利诺伊州，1981年毕业于斯沃思莫学院德文专业。

1996年，在《哈泼氏》杂志上发表了长篇随笔《偶尔做做梦》，表达了他对文学现状的担忧，从此受到广泛关注。

迄今为止，出版有小说《第二十七座城市》（1988）、《强震》（1992）、《纠正》（2001），随笔集《如何孤独》（2002），以及回忆录《不舒适地带：个人史》（2006）。

凭借《纠正》获得普利策奖提名和美国国家图书奖。

2010年，第四部小说《自由》一面世即引发抢购热潮，迅速登上各大畅销书榜，被评论界誉为“世纪小说”。

他以抨击现代传媒、书写普通民众著称，作品具有强烈的时代性，比实验小说易读，又比热衷于讲故事的小说在形式和内容上都更具当代气息和思想深度。

他自由地居于美国文坛传统的讲故事者和先锋的创新实验作家之间，独具特色，被评论界誉为最出色的美国小说家之一。

Freedom follows several members of an American family, the Berglunds, as well as their close friends and lovers, as complex and troubled relationships unfold over many years. The book follows them through the last decades of the twentieth century and concludes near the beginning of the Obama administration.
Freedom opens with a short history of the Berglund family from the perspective of their nosy neighbors. The Berglunds are portrayed as the most ideal liberal middle-class family, and they are among the first families to move back into urban St. Paul, Minnesota, after years of white flight to the suburbs. Patty Berglund is an unusually young and pretty homemaker with a self-deprecating sense of humor; her husband Walter is a mild-mannered lawyer with strong environmentalist leanings. 自由是描绘一个美国家庭，Berglund，和他们的亲密的朋友和爱人之间复杂和麻烦的关系展开多年。

这本书遵循他们在过去几十年的第二十个世纪，并得出结论附近的奥巴马政府的开始。

自由打开了一个短暂的历史贝里隆德家庭从他们好管闲事的邻居的角度。

该伯格朗描述为最理想的自由主义的中产阶级家庭，和他们的第一家庭在搬回城市圣保罗，明尼苏达，后白飞行年到郊区。

帕蒂的主要是一种自嘲式的幽默感非常年轻漂亮的家庭主妇；丈夫沃尔特是一个温和的律师具有很强的环保主义倾向。

They have one daughter, Jessica, and a son, Joey, who early on displays an independent streak and an interest in making money. Joey becomes sexually involved with a neighborhood teen named Connie and begins to rebel against his mother, going so far as to move in with Connie, her mother, and her mother's boyfriend Blake, making Patty and Walter increasingly unstable. After several unhappy years, the family relocates to Washington, D.C., abandoning the neighborhood and house they worked so hard to improve. Walter takes a job with an unorthodox environmental project, tied to big coal.
他们有一个女儿，杰西卡，和一个儿子，乔伊，谁早就显示一个独立的线条和赚钱感兴趣。

乔伊开始性活动与附近一个少年叫康妮开始反抗他的母亲，要到目前为止作为移动与康妮，她母亲，她母亲的男朋友布莱克，让帕蒂和沃尔特越来越不稳定。

经过几年的不幸福，家庭搬迁到华盛顿哥伦比亚特区，放弃附近的房子他们努力提高。

沃尔特把工作与非正统的环保项目，与大煤。

The second portion of the book takes the form of an autobiography of Patty Berglund, composed at the suggestion of her therapist. The autobiography tells of Patty's youth as a star basketball player, and her increasing alienation from her artistically inclined parents and sisters. Instead of attending an East Coast elite college like her siblings, she gets a basketball scholarship to the University of Minnesota and adopts the life of the athlete. She meets an attractive but unattainable indie rock musician named Richard Katz, and his nerdy but kind roommate, Walter Berglund. After her basketball career-ending knee injury, Patty suddenly becomes desperate for male affection, and after failing to woo Richard, she settles down with Walter, who had been patiently courting her for more than a year. We learn that Patty retained her desire for Richard and eventually had a brief affair with him at the Berglunds' lakeside cabin.
这本书的第二部分以帕蒂老自传的形式，由她在治疗师的建议。

自传讲述帕蒂的青年作为一个篮球明星，和她越来越疏离她的艺术倾向的父母和姐妹。

她没有参加一个东海岸的精英学院，像她的兄弟姐妹，她得到一个篮球奖学金到明尼苏达大学，并采取了生活的运动员。

她遇到了一个有吸引力的但不独立摇滚音乐家叫李察卡茨，和他的书呆子但是善良的室友，Walter Berglund。

她的篮球生涯结束的膝伤后，帕蒂突然变得绝望的男性的感情，并向李察求爱失败后，她定居沃尔特，谁一直耐心地追求她一年多了。

我们知道帕蒂保留她想要李察，终于有了一个短暂的婚外情与他在伯格朗的湖边小屋。

The novel then jumps ahead to New York City in 2004 and shifts to the story of Walter and Patty's friend Richard, who has finally succeeded in becoming a minor indie rock star in his middle age. His hit album Nameless Lake tells the story of his brief love affair with Patty at the Berglunds' lakeside cabin in Minnesota. Richard is uncomfortable with commercial success, throws away his new-found money, and returns to building roof decks for wealthy people in Manhattan. Walter calls him out of the blue to enlist his help as a celebrity spokesman for an environmental campaign. Walter has taken a job in Washington, D.C. working for a coal mining magnate who wants to strip mine a section of West Virginia forest before turning it into a songbird preserve of future environmental value. Walter hopes to use some of this project's funding to hold a concert to combat overpopulation, the common factor behind all his environmental concerns, and he believes that Richard will be able to rally well-known musicians to his cause. Meanwhile, Walter's marriage to Patty has been deteriorating steadily, and his pretty young assistant Lalitha has fallen deeply in love with him.
小说然后跳到纽约市2004和转移到帕蒂和沃尔特的朋友李察的故事，他终于成功地成为他的中年小的独立摇滚明星。

他的专辑无名湖告诉他短暂的恋情在明尼苏达伯格朗'湖边小屋帕蒂的故事。

李察不安的是商业上的成功，把他的新发现的钱扔了，回到了曼哈顿富人的屋顶甲板上。

沃尔特把他称为“蓝”来争取他的帮助，作为一个名人代言人的环保运动。

沃尔特已经在华盛顿特区工作，工作一煤矿巨头谁想带我一段西弗吉尼亚森林之前，把它变成一只未来的环境价值保护。

沃尔特希望利用这一项目的资金将举办一场音乐会，打击人口过剩，在他所有的环境问题的共同因素，他认为李察会反弹知名音乐家他的事业。

同时，沃尔特的婚姻，帕蒂已经每况愈下，和他年轻漂亮的助理Lalitha已经深深地爱上了他。

.In parallel, the Berglunds' estranged, Republican son Joey attempts to finance his college life at the University of Virginia by taking on a dubious subcontract to provide spare parts for outdated supply trucks during the Iraq War. While at college, he marries his childhood sweetheart but dares not tell his parents. After visiting his roommate's family in the DC suburbs, he also pursues his friend's beautiful sister Jenna and is exposed to her father's Zionist, neoconservative politics. After months of pursuing Jenna, when she finally wants him to have sex with her, he cannot maintain an erection. Later he becomes conflicted after making $850,000 selling defective truck parts to military suppliers in Iraq. In the end Joey gives away the excess proceeds of his profiteering, reconciles with his parents, settles down with Connie, and moves into a sustainable coffee business with the help of his father Walter.
平行的。

，伯格朗的疏远，共和党的儿子乔伊企图资助他的大学生活是在弗吉尼亚大学以可疑的转包给伊拉克战争期间提供过时的供应卡车配件。

在大学的时候，他和他儿时的恋人结婚，但不敢告诉父母。

在DC郊区他的室友的家人后，他还追他朋友的漂亮姐姐珍娜和接触到她父亲的犹太复国主义，新保守主义政治。

在追求珍娜月，当她终于要他和她发生性关系，他不能维持勃起。

后来他成为冲突后，850000美元的伊拉克军事供应商出售有缺陷的汽车配件。

最后我给了他的暴利的超额收益，将与他的父母，定居在康妮，与他的父亲沃尔特的帮助下进入一个可持续的咖啡业务。

Now, Richard's re-appearance destroys Walter and Patty's weakening marriage. Richard tries to convince Patty to leave Walter, but she shows Richard the autobiography she wrote as "therapy", trying to convince him that she's still in love with Walter. Richard deliberately leaves the autobiography on Walter's desk, and Walter reads Patty's true thoughts. Walter kicks Patty out of the house, and she moves to Jersey City to be with Richard, but the relationship only lasts six months. Later, she moves to Brooklyn alone and takes a job at a private school, discovering her skill for teaching younger children. When Patty leaves him, Walter has a catharsis on live television, revealing his contempt for the displaced West Virginian families and his various commercial backers. Local rednecks respond by dragging him from the platform and beating him up. He is promptly fired by the environmental trust, but his TV debacle makes him a viral video hero to radical youth across the nation. He and his assistant Lalitha become lovers and continue their plans to combat overpopulation through a concert to rally young people in the hills of West Virginia. Lalitha is killed in a suspicious car accident a few days before the concert is due to take place. Shattered, and having lost both of the women who loved him, Walter retreats to his family's lakeside vacation house back in Minnesota. He becomes known to a new street of neighbors as a cranky old recluse, obsessed with house cats killing birds nesting on his property.
现在，李察重新出现，破坏了帕蒂和沃尔特的弱化婚姻。

李察试图说服帕蒂离开沃尔特，但她发现李察的自传她写道“治疗”，试图说服他，她还爱着沃尔特。

李察故意离开沃尔特的书桌的自传，沃尔特读帕蒂的真实想法。

沃尔特踢帕蒂走出屋子，她搬到泽西市是李察，但
关系只持续六个月。

后来，她搬到布鲁克林独自在一所私立学校工作，发现了她教年幼的孩子的技能。

当帕蒂离开他，沃尔特在电视直播的一种宣泄，暴露他的流离失所的西弗吉尼亚的家庭和他的各种商业支持者的蔑视。

当地的农夫会把他从平台和打人。

他及时的环境信托解雇，但是他的电视的崩溃使他成为一个病毒视频英雄激进青年全国。

他和他的助手拉莉莎-成为恋人，继续打击人口过剩通过音乐会集会在西弗吉尼亚山年轻人计划。

拉莉莎-是在前几天的演唱会将可疑的车祸中丧生。

破碎的，失去的那些爱他的女人，瓦尔特撤退到他家的湖边度假屋回明尼苏达。

他成为一个新的街道邻居称为一个古怪的老隐士，痴迷房子猫杀鸟筑巢在他的财产。

After a few years living in Brooklyn, Patty's father dies and she is forced to settle the fight that erupts within her family of spoiled bohemians as they attempt to split up the much-diminished family fortune. This experience helps Patty to mature. After a few years of living alone, she appraises the emptiness of her life and honestly faces her advancing age. She decides to hunt down Walter, the only man who had ever really loved her. She drives to the lakeside cabin in Minnesota, and despite his rage and confusion, he eventually agrees to take her back. The book ends in 2008 as they leave as a couple to return to Patty's job in New York City, after turning their old lakeside vacation home into a cat-proof fenced bird sanctuary, named in memory of Lalitha.
几年后，生活在布鲁克林，派蒂的父亲死了，她被迫为他们企图分裂削弱了很多家庭财富解决战斗，爆发在她的家人宠坏的人。

这经验帮助帕蒂成熟。

几年后的生活，她评价了她的生活的空虚，并诚实地面对她的年龄。

她决定要追捕沃尔特，唯一一个真正爱她的人。

她开车到明尼苏达的湖边小屋，尽管他的愤怒和困惑，他最终还是同意带她回去。

这本书的结尾在2008离开他们作为一对夫妇回到帕蒂的工作在纽约市，把他们的老湖滨度假屋变成一只猫证明围栏鸟类保护区后，在记忆的拉莉莎-命名。

这本书的讽刺味道，尤其是人物语气中的———在美国我们习惯使用大量反讽。

但我不担心故事本身，因为人物的处境是无国界的，比如帕蒂在欲望和忠实之间的摇摆，沃尔特与儿子的矛盾和对环境问题的痛心，乔伊想做个好人和赚大钱的愿望等等。

“就像菲茨杰拉德在《了不起的盖茨比》中描述了当年的‘美国梦’的破灭一样，当年的‘美国梦’的标签是‘成功’，今天的‘美国梦’的标签是‘自由’。

”学者止庵曾对《自由》做出如此评鉴。

弗兰岑认为，他追寻着十九世纪现实主义的写作风格，在书中，他描绘了一个中产阶级家庭在21世纪最初十年内遭遇的梦想与失败。

“我的野心来自十九世纪，那时像托尔斯泰、陀思妥耶夫斯基、狄更斯和巴尔扎克之类的作家虽然走严肃写作路线，却也能吸引广大读者。

”弗兰岑说。

正是弗兰岑的现实主义风格，让他在写作潮流瞬间更迭的今日备受争议。

书中帕蒂和沃尔特的生活变得一团糟，是因为“自由”带来的，可以这么简单地理解吗？
弗兰岑：因为自由有多重含义，我的小说认为政治方面的自由是理所当然的———新闻自由，选择自由，表达自由———因为小说的背景是在美国。

但即便政治和消费的自由度如此之高，美国人并不是世界上最快乐的人群。

这部小说想探讨的主题之一就是这种现象产生的可能原因。

拥有太多选择可能也是一种专制，尤其帕蒂本身就拥有太多的选择。

《自由》讲述了一个美国中产阶级家庭在二十一世纪的第一个十年所经历的梦想与失败。

他以悲喜交织的手法，戏剧性地刻画了拥有太多自由带给人的诱惑与负担：原来自由带给我们的，是幸福之外的一切……满怀情感纠结的家庭主妇、坚持当好人的丈夫、精神飘荡不定的摇滚歌手，以及叛逆、迷茫的青春期孩子，一个个鲜活而又现实的人物跃然纸上。

弗兰岑着眼于具体的生活细节，以充满思考和力量的文字，“记录”各个人物在一个肤浅的娱乐世界里如何挣扎着去学习生存、找寻意义，体察人类滔天的欲望和无边的痛苦，描绘出一幅格局磅礴的时代画像。