Leisure
In a 1996 Harper’s Magazine article, Johnathan Franzen quotes another author by asking, “What story is there to tell about the average American whose day consists of sleeping, working at a computer screen, watching TV and talking on the phone?” Battered by the inability of his first two novels to move off the shelves, Franzen questions in his essay whether or not the novel is still able to retain social significance when most Americans pass their days, months and years without ever picking up a book.
By
the Voice Staff
November 29, 2001