Franzenesque
adj. In the manner or style of novelist Jonathan Franzen.
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Etymology
Examples
2015
The Wolfe characters who lack a roman à clef provenance, the more generic figures in his page-turning plot, have washed away with time. By contrast, Hallberg often dispenses with the dictates of journalism to burrow into the psychic and familial underpinnings of his characters in a Franzenesque, if not Dickensian, manner.
—Frank Rich, “Garth Risk Hallberg’s ‘City on Fire’,” The New York Times, October 08, 2015
2014
On a different note, what do you make of this season’s super-computer plot. “The Monolith,” the first episode when the IBM appeared, was full of thematically obvious, man versus machine talk. Is there more to it than an extended 2001: A Space Odyssey homage? Is Weiner trying to make a technophobic, Franzen-esque point?
—Esther Breger & Chloe Schama, “Dissecting Mad Men's Hopeful, Saccharine Half-Season,” New Republic, May 26, 2014
2013
In fairness, maybe these writers do know the Internet (in as much as it can be known) better than Eggers, who has a Franzen-esque distaste for Twitter.
2013
Everything about the book is big, including its Franzenesque length.
—Shinan Govani, “Book Review: Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan,” National Post, June 21, 2013
2012
"Even if I were writing fiction it wouldn’t be a straight down the line Franzenesque novel, which I’m utterly incapable of writing, though I’m perfectly capable of admiring," he says.
—Josh Dzieza, “Geoff Dyer Discusses His New Book, ‘Zona,’ the Upside of Boredom, and Despair,” The Daily Beast, March 01, 2012
2002 (earliest)
While I was offline, I read Mark Costello's fine new novel, Big If, which is a Jonathan Franzen-esque family tale that orbits around the Secret Service and a New Hampshire Presidential primary.
—Dan Pink, “Out of rehab, into the sun.,” Just One Thing, August 05, 2002