... unless you really want to. And you better have good reasons in that case. I can't imagine what they could be though. If you want to ponder, circa 1988, the problems facing U.S. cities, or terrorism, or conspiracy, you'll not find anything much here. This is Franzen's first book, written 13 years before the materpice The Corrections (which is why you're considering this one, right?), and the kid had not yet assembled his talents nor adequately honed his intelligence. Rather than itemize its marginal successes against it's tedious failures, I'm gonna streamline for you: the only reason to give this a workout is to see how much the author, as a storyteller, truthteller, character-meister, has developed since. And that endevour is one of research. Read The Corrections again instead. Seriously.