很好看么？AMAZON上的评价为三星。

　　
　　
　　38元，真贵啊，俺瞧见的英文原版，出价35元，俺正琢磨呢要还是不要列，嫌贵呢，不过连“比目鱼”都想看，拿不拿类？
　　
　　QUOTE FROM AMAZON：
　　
　　110 of 134 people found the following review helpful:
　　
　　Style A, Content C, —— By "beatrice88"
　　
　　September 3, 2001
　　
　　
　　I was really looking forward to this book, having read Franzen's earlier manifesto regarding the decline of the American novel and the hilarious segment regarding failed screenwriter Chip in the New Yorker. But now it seems that Franzen's fallen into the same slag pit of postmodern irony that has claimed so many other talented writers of our generation. Franzen's writing style is unsurpassed in style -- witty, poetic, by turns tender and savage, reminiscent of Martin Amis and Dave Eggers. But the artistry of Franzen's writing only underscores the hollowness of the characters, the absurdity of the plot, and the utter lack of theme. Maybe this is all "intentional" (artist-speak for "I couldn't come up with anything else"), but the book is less a novel of scope and ambition than a bulky compendium of bitter wit unredeemed by insight or wisdom. It seems to me a failure of courage to take refuge in satire when Franzen clearly has the talent to write seriously about life. But this could have exposed him to charges of sentimentalism, that foulest of literary weaknesses, and he obviously is wise to that, as everyone seems to be praising this book for the very qualities it lacks.
　　We already have enough absurdist literature and rancid black comedy whose main function is to showcase the wit of the the author at the expense of his characters (not to mention the reader still foolish enough to be seeking transcendence in American literature.) I finished the book in a mood of grim fascination, but overall I was disappointed and depressed. Like many other "literary" novels -- the very ones Franzen claims to despise -- the characters are glib riffs on contemporary stock characters (lesbian, yuppie, suburban psycho-matriarch) rather than characters that you believe in and might even sympathize with. The one character who comes to life is Chip, Franzen's surrogate, whose embarassing obsessions and pathetic stabs of ambition made me laugh out loud (the salmon-in-pants scene was a brilliant, A+ combo of physical comedy and literary flash -- if only the whole book had kept the promising pace of Chip's saga of urban hipster pathos!) I felt for Chip in a way that I never did for the other characters.
　　
　　And I was really put off by the unending saga of the father's battle with his failing body. There seems to be a belief among contemporary authors that unflinching, detailed descriptions of humiliating scatological scenes somehow makes a meaningful statement about the human condition. Actually, it comes off as a giant cop-out by someone who didn't dare to challenge the existential cliches of modern fiction. James Joyce countered his bodily obsessions with fierce flights of lyrical imagination that leave the reader drunk with the potential of life and art. Would that Franzen had done the the same.
　　
　　

2008-06-28 13:03:52 Pluto™陶真 　　正在看呢。。。。。 　　真是一个大部头， 　　 　　评价说，与《百年孤独》一样伟大？真的假的啊