Review Book Club: As a service to reading groups, John Mullan deconstructs a notable novel available in paperback. This month it is Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. Week four: meals

Nicholas Lezard gets round to reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. He now wonders what took him so long

When Jonathan Franzen's acclaimed novel, The Corrections, was selected by Oprah Winfrey to appear on her TV book club, he was dragged back to his home town to be filmed, quite literally in his own back yard. The only problem was that the writer had long since left St Louis behind, and was reluctant to revisit the memories of his past. Something had to give. Here he recalls the experience that brought him out in a rash.