The Discomfort Zone consists of six essays about different points in the life of its author, Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections). He discusses his childhood, where the harder he tried to fit in, the worse his social skills were in any situation, the generation gap that existed between his brothers and parents, and his involvement in a Christian teen group. He examines the emotions involved in selling his mother's home and the dissolution of his marriage. It's a self-absorbed look at a life that is both humorous and painful.
The Discomfort Zone has received mostly positive reviews with the Christian Science Monitor saying, "It's hilarious and it's painful. It's sharply insightful and it's also frustratingly obtuse."
