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\xa0 I remember getting the knife. \xa0 \xa0 It was near Christmas about 10 years ago and Leslie and I were zipping up a tiny suitcase before a beach trip with her grandparents and extended family. We weren\u2019t married and I was making a desperate last-second plea to stuff a 576-page novel called \u2018The Corrections\u2019 by Jonathan Franzen into our bag. \u201cIt just won\u2019t fit,\u201d Leslie said. \u201cYou have \u2026 100 pages left? Want to leave it and read it when we\u2019re back?\u201d \xa0 \xa0 I did *not* want to do that. \xa0 \xa0 The book was slipping under my skin\u2014serrating my soul. \xa0 \xa0 So I remember getting that knife. \xa0 \xa0 The deep blasphemous pain I felt slicing the paperback spine and carving the last 100-ish pages off the book was far outweighed by the exquisite suite of pleasures I had slowly savoring it on the beach all week. \xa0 \xa0 I had never read anything like \u2018The Corrections\u2019\u2014with a clarity of character, wildly spinning plot, and unique three-dimensional *realness* that, page by page, twist by twist, left pits in my stomach, lumps in my throat, and tears in my eyes. \xa0 \xa0 The book single-handedly elevated what I thought books could do. \xa0 \xa0 I read \u2018Freedom\u2019 (2010), \u2018Purity\u2019 (2014), and 'Crossroads' (2021) the same way\u2014equal parts admiration, fascination, and with a psychologically-transporting feeling of living outside of myself. \xa0 \xa0 Jonathan Franzen is one of the most successful, accomplished, and decorated writers in the world. He is a Fulbright Scholar, National Book Award Winner, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, PEN/Faulkner Finalist, 2x Oprah\u2019s Book Club Pick, voted to TIME\u2019s \u2018100 Most Influential\u2019 list as well as gracing their cover as "Great American Novelist," and much, much more. \xa0 \xa0 The NYT calls his books "masterpieces of American fiction," NYMag calls his books "works of total genius," and Chuck Klosterman writing in GQ says "Franzen is the most important fiction writer in America, and\u2014if viewed from a distance\u2014perhaps the only important one.\u201d \xa0 \xa0 Tall praise! But there is just nothing like a Jonathan Franzen novel and it was sheer delight going deep with the master of the deep to discuss writing advice, the magic of the written word, what heroes look like today, competing with David Foster Wallace, the best thing we can do for the climate, Jon\u2019s 3 most formative books, and much, much more\u2026 \xa0 \xa0 Let\u2019s turn the page to Chapter 137 now\u2026