Jonathan Franzen Q & A

       At hlo they have a translation of a Q & A Eni Rostás and Dóra Szekeres had with Jonathan Franzen.
       I'm not sure whether he was just sucking up, or whether he has a particularly odd interpretation of what the so-called 'American Dream' is in giving this particular response:

Do you believe in the American Dream ? Or is that an idealized and misunderstood concept like the Great American Novel ?

I sort of have to believe in it, since I've been living it. My father's father came to America as a manual laborer. My mother's father was a bartender. And here I'm giving an interview to Hungary's leading literary news magazine.

       Ah, yes, the Horatio Alger story writ large, with happy end of triumphant hero giving interviews to ... Hungary's leading literary news magazine.
       Slightly more interesting: Franzen's explanation that:

If my novels make sense to Eastern European readers, maybe it's because Kafka and Rilke and Kraus and Mann cured me of my American optimism at an early age.