The kind people at Picador sent me a copy of the trade paperback of this book called Freedom by some guy named Jonathan Franzen. The hardback came out last year, but it kinda went under the radar; one of those obscure underground reads. Maybe he’ll have more success in the paperback (it’s certainly lighter). The book has apparently been BeDazzled, too—a nice touch. The bird’s eye is this bumpy little bumpy bump—I tried to angle the cover so you might see it in the closeup below, but I’m not sure if it comes across.
Biblioklept 
fuck that guy
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Ben, I think your sentiment is misplaced. Apparently this book is part of “Oprah’s” “Book Club” — also, this Franzen fellow, as I have it, was on the cover of Time! Time magazine!
In all seriousness, my living room floor has a stack of middlebrow middle class novels that’s hitting about 8″ deep right now.
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Are hard covers a typically American thing? I ask because I’ve had the trade paperback version with the exact cover minus the gaudy fluff (Oprah, quote) because that’s how the novel was published here in Australia. It seems insane that they’ve taken so long to release a paperback version…
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yeah, generally with big house “prestige novels” there’s a long gap between the hardback and the trade paperback; sometimes prestige titles don’t even get a mass market paperback version. does the aussie version have the bumpy eye thing?
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Yep, the bird has a bumpy eye and entire bird has a nice shiny finish to it.
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Finished this bad boy last week. Has a lot of problems, but nonetheless a decent pseudo-psychological page-turning soap opera.
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i think the cover looks a lot like Murakami’s “Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” Apropos of nothing.
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