In the heavily-publicized lead up to his book's August 31st release, "Freedom" author Jonathan Franzen is promoting his book with a "little author video," but not before talking about how much he dislikes "little author videos."
"This might be a good place for me to register my profound discomfort at having to make videos like this," Franzen said. "To me, the point of a novel is to take you to a still place. You can multitask with a lot of things, but you can't really multitask reading a book. You're either reading a book or you're not. To me, the world of books is the quiet alternative, an ever more desperately needed alternative."
In the no-frills video, Franzen gives an early hint of one of the book's central conflicts: world overpopulation and how it conflicts with the meaning we place on raising children.
"Freedom" has already received a great deal of attention and early acclaim. He's the first living novelist to get the Time cover in a decade, and the book has garnered praise from The New York Times, Esquire, and NPR.
Despite all the positive press, when it comes to self-promotion, does Franzen get it right?
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.