I'm a big Jon Franzen fan. The Corrections is definitely one of my favorite books, and chunks of his Why Bother? essay have found their way into the backbone of a couple Available Light productions. For my money, he was right about Oprah and Peanuts and wrong about Gaddis

But, even I find it a bit odd that he chose the forward of his translation of Spring Awakening as a place to lash-out at the hit musical, and I find it hard not to agree with Duncan Sheik's overly-defensive-but-astute tirade.

The dexterity [Franzen] displays in simultaneously riding our coattails and stabbing us in the back certainly proves him quite the limber ‘populist.’