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To avoid celebrating too much, I read a lot of these guys over xmas. Some observations:

Franzen is whiny. Dyer you'd like to be his friend and take drugs with him or at least play tennis.
Franzen has produced the better book: The Corrections.
In essays Dyer is funny, Franzen you just feel like you're getting too much info from a conceited nerd.
Dyer's essays on photograpy are his dullest. All Franzen essays are kinda boring.
Dyer likes tv, Franzen thinks it's evil.
Dyer likes drugs, Franzen antidepressants.

So.....

Have you read Geoff Dyer's book on Jazz? Apparently he's written about Sun Ra (whose band often perform in Dalston's Otto Cafe). And, he has also put together a Jazz book called But Beautiful. Apparently the definition of Jazz is music that is "unexpected" so it kind of makes sense that rather than just writing a sensible biog of famous Jazz musicians, Dyer has come up with something more playful.

I used to like Dyer, but it's been a while since I read any. For some reason I get him confused with Richard Rayner.

As a novel, The Corrections felt a bit too scattered and tedious. It's as if Franzen wanted to put all of his ideas into the one killer story, but it only killed the story. I think it might be better if he didn't spend so long on them. Maybe he should read Vonnegut again and look at the quick and dirty payoffs a bit more.

Has anyone noticed how hard it is to get a book by Geoff Dyer that hasn't been personally signed by him. Gilbert and George are the same. They sign everything.