Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: very stimulating, stirring, challenging reading

I enjoyed this collection of essays very much. Some of the essasy were quite dense, and made me feel a bit inadequate, but I will read them over and take them as a challenge to me, not elititism. Even if a bit of what Franzen writes is self-congratulatory, that seems human and understandable to me--but I don't think he is writing to pat himself on the back. I really enjoyed his essay on Prisons--reading it felt to me like watching a Michael Moore Documentary--because you see the issue from many different perspectives and from a very human (vs abstract) stand point--and you are not given answers, but left to "work with" the ambiguity. I also was very much stirred by his essays on his father and on the Oprah taping. I definitely feel this collection is worth reading...I think most people can take something from it, even if, like me, they are nowhere near as well-read as Franzen.