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St. Paul, Minn.

The Discomfort Zone

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Jonathan Franzen
In a collection of essays called "The Discomfort Zone," Jonathan Franzen has mined moments from his formative years growing up in a St. Louis suburb and and turned them into literary gems.
Photo by Greg Martin

Anyone who has gone through adolesence has those moments. Just remembering them can make you cringe inside even 20 or 30 years later. Most of us just hide them away mentally. But not Jonathan Franzen.

In a collection of essays now out in paperback, the acclaimed author of "The Corrections" has mined some of those moments from his own life and turned them into literary gems.

The collection is called "The Discomfort Zone" and in it, we learn a lot about the author's formative years growing up in a St. Louis suburb. Jonathan Franzen joined All Things Considered host Tom Crann to talk about his book and adolescence.

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Jonathan Franzen
In a collection of essays called "The Discomfort Zone," Jonathan Franzen has mined moments from his formative years growing up in a St. Louis suburb and and turned them into literary gems.
Photo by Greg Martin