Old virtues: modern success

The Corrections, the most successful literary novel of the 21st century so far, is old-fashioned in its virtues, worthy of the 19th century or a good deal earlier. After all, it's about a family and the shift of power between the generations - one of the great topics of literature.

Enid and Alfred Lambert are retirees in the fictional Midwestern city of St Jude. Alfred has spent his life as a railway engineer, Enid as a nagging, aspirational housewife. Now Alfred has Parkinson's and is losing his mind. Enid furiously tries to summon her family for one last Christmas at home.

There are three grown-up children: Gary, a prosperous but unhappy banker, married, with children and a bad barbecue habit; Chip, an academic, disgraced and impoverished after an affair with a student; and Denise, a bi-sexual chef at a fashionable restaurant.

None of the three is fulfilled. They are all still in thrall to the family and its determinism - and Alfred's disintegration threatens to undo them all.

Despite its length, The Corrections is always enticingly readable, incredibly direct in its address. If you haven't yet discovered Jonathan Franzen, you're missing out on the best that the contemporary novel has to offer.