Last time I wrote about the books I took to Italy: Jasper Jones and In Office Hours. But the story doesn’t end there.  So to continue...

Once in the UK I visited one of the ubiquitous Waterstone’s stores—the chain appears to have taken over bookselling in Britain—for more supplies, but didn’t make it past the recommended best sellers at the front door.  I was gratified to see The Slap amongst them, as well as Helen Garner’s most recent novel The Spare Room.  I’d been meaning to read the latter since it was published in 2008, after a good friend’s family was seduced into the sinister world of alternative cancer treatments (with the expected outcomes).

I was delighted to see the British reviews for The Spare Room were glowing; it was selected as a Book of the Year by no less than nine national newspapers. The English generally hand out praise grudgingly to Australians, especially when it comes to the Arts—it doesn’t fit their comfortable stereotype of Australia being the ‘dumb blonde’ of the world. But I guess talent will always win out in the end.

With The Spare Room Garner somehow manages to write an unsentimental book about a woman dying of cancer, yet still make it uplifting. That's why she's one of our most admired writers, I suppose. The only downside with the novel is that is so short —it certainly wasn’t going to support the long haul fight back to Oz. I compensated by including as my second purchase a great doorstopper of a book Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen.

I adored Franzen’s earlier novel, The Corrections, and was gripped by a fully fledged literary crush. I’d therefore been ready rush out and buy Freedom when it was published last year, until I started reading more and more about Franzen’s deification (the only writer to grace the cover of Time in a decade etc.etc.). The point was made that many writers of comparable talent—specifically women writers—rarely receive a fraction of the attention or accolades afforded this American white male.

I then stumbled across an article in Australian Author magazine that described Franzen as ‘notoriously difficult’.  How could the author of the warm and witty The Corrections possibly be difficult? It didn’t make sense to me. However, I  have since watched and read a few interviews with him and I can see he does have a prickly side—not one to suffer fools I’d suggest.

Still, when I saw Freedom in the bookshop in England, I knew it was time to relent (for a start the book was much cheaper than in Oz).  After all, if I’m not put off books with unlikeable characters it seemed unbearably precious to reject a novel because its author could be a touch curmudgeonly.

And my assessment?   Freedom is the best book I have read since I don’t know when, maybe since The Corrections.  Mr Franzen can be as ‘difficult’ as he likes; if he keeps writing books like Freedom I will continue to adore him. Of course, the debate will rage on whether Freedom is as good as many critics claim. But Franzen writes the sort of books I want to read—ones that examine big issues through the lives of a few exquisitely flawed individuals—and he does it better than any other writer I’ve ever come across.

I’m feeling quite bereft now that I finished Freedom. I find I’m not quite ready to leave the Berglunds behind.  In deference to Freedom’s brilliance I’ve have decided not read any fiction for a few weeks, instead I’m tackling a non-fiction work about autism which has been staring at me accusingly from my bedside table for several months.

Jasper Jones, The Spare Room and Freedom will somehow have to find a place in my bookcase, which is already far too crowded.  After all, we can never have too many friends.

What’s the best book you’ve read lately?

PS. The launch of the Australian Autism Handbook was held at Sydney’s wonderful Gleebooks in May 2008. The launch took place immediately after an author event with Helen Garner, who was promoting The Spare Room at the time.  I signed the authors’ book just below her. Can’t tell you how happy I was about that!