SOURCE: Franzen, Jonathan, and Michael Coffey. “Jonathan Franzen: A Distinct Turn to More Personal Issues Marks His Second Novel.” Publishers Weekly 238, no. 53 (6 December 1991): 53-4.

In the following interview, Coffey quizzes Franzen about the differences between the author's first two books, as well as the critical reception for the first.

It's tough being a first novelist: your book arrives unbidden in the zone of critics and reviewers; you can but watch as it is set upon by presumptions formed in a literary universe of which you were not a part. Trailing hype perhaps, but more often simply the hopes of yourself, your agent, editor, family and friends, the first novel can expire silently from neglect; in rare instances, it seems as if the world is waiting only for this book; more commonly, the author gets a lesson in the world of commerce and letters.

In the case of The...