Gypsy Mom 2008-02-24

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

After reading The Corrections, which I LOVED, I went in search of other Franzen books. This book was tedious, slow, boring, and simply uninteresting. It is so dreadfully dull and dry relative to The Corrections or 27th City.

Adam R. Pittman 2007-10-23

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Although this novel is unorthodox and the first half of it is very slow, it is also highly worth reading because the payoff for sticking it out is great. This is Franzen's novel which focuses on "the soul". His other two novels -- The Corrections and The Twenty-Seventh City -- are founded on the themes family and government, respectively. The Twenty-Seventh City keeps our interest with its fast pace and hilarity; the Corrections sacrifices pace for an intense family chronicle and thus keeps our attention. Strong Motion has no such "reading-lubricant;" like other activities which concern the soul, you have to be devoted to reading the book if you want to get something out of it. And you will.

As in his other books, Franzen gives us illuminated and very unique portraits of the book's cast of characters and locale. The frequency of the plot is jagged with its frenetic highs followed by sharp drops into detail. The philosophies of various characters which pervade the book give it the aura of a Platonic dialogue or holy text.

It is also important to note that this is Franzen's only real love story, and of all love stories it is one of the most touching and realistic that I have ever read.

Read this book if you enjoy challenges with serious rewards.

C. Mendoza-tolentino 2007-05-19

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

After reading "The Corrections," any book let alone a Franzen book is sure to disappoint. It's like asking a young Charles Dickens to write "Great Expectations" at a time when he's still trying to muddle his way through one of his Christmas tales (forgive me Dickens purists if I've somehow messed up any sense of chronology, but you get the picture). "Strong Motion," Franzen's second book, shows flashes of brilliance, but ultimately fails to show the magic he comes up with in subsequent books (by the way, Franzen really needs to start writing ficiton again...).

This dense book follows a single dysfunctional family, the shady dealings of a multi-million dollar company, and what happens when a series of earthquakes claims the life of a wealthy space-agey grandmother. Franzen takes an unlikely plotline - earthquakes affecting the New England area - and juggles multiple perspectives and relationships affected by it. I was apprehensive when I started reading the novel because of how expansive the book felt - I mean, he goes off on random tangents like what life is like from the viewpoint of a raccoon - but he ultimately ties everything else quite nively. I apologize for writing in vague terms, but the book is truly pregnant with details. But as great as the tangents and density of the novel are, it's these aspects that ultimately fail the novel. In many respects, the novel often seems like an excuse to play with writing and language within an overall framework. For fans of good writing, this is an important book in the career of an important writer, but for the subway and recreational reader, save yourself some time and read "The Corrections" or even his collection of essays "How to Be Alone."

K. D. Stutzman 2007-03-09

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Strong Motion, Jonathan Franzen's second novel, is a big, elaborate book that's packed with...well, with all sorts of things: earthquakes in greater Boston, familial dysfunction in the extreme, the antics of a clinic-picketing minister of an anti-abortion church, grouchy observations about American culture at the end of the `80s, the misdeeds of an environmentally irresponsible chemical company, an attempted murder, vast sums of money being thrown about, and the Red Sox losing the playoffs. The book follows Louis Holland and Renee Seitchek as they fall in love with each other and attempt to find their way through all the chaos of the narrative.

It's exciting to watch a writer try to pull off a book as ambitious as this one, but I always get so disappointed if they don't succeed. Franzen gets close to realizing his ambitions with Strong Motion, but the book never really gels. I think this may be partly due to the sheer volume of what the book contains--there's just too much stuff competing for the reader's attention, and the split focus on reproductive rights and environmentalism means that neither issue gets explored in a satisfying way. The real problem, though, is the characters. They just don't make sense. I wanted to like Renee and there were times when I found myself identifying with her quite strongly, but there were also many moments when she would do or say something that would leave me shocked that Franzen believed that a 30-year-old woman would think/feel/act like that. And it wasn't just the 30-year-old woman, either. All of the characters had these slips, where suddenly their motivations stopped making sense, or their reactions suddenly seemed out of proportion to the situation, or the decisions they made felt like choices that no human on the face of the earth would ever pick.

I was troubled by odd bits of disconnection in the plot, as well. Why, for instance, when Louis is initially presented to us as a typical nerdy loner--a pale, lumpen guy who's losing his hair at 23, who wears aviator glasses, who spends his spare time fiddling with transistor radios in his bedroom, who is still much more boy than man--does he end up being fought over by two different women? I have nothing against nerdy guys, but Franzen set Louis up as such a loser that I found it very hard to believe that both women (and especially the beautiful and superficial Lauren) would be interested in him. It's very hard for a book to recover once it's gone too far over the plausibility line, and Strong Motion did that more than once.

Despite its flaws, Strong Motion is a decent book. It's entertaining, there's enough intrigue in the plot to keep things moving at a pretty good clip, and Franzen's prose is sharp. It's also very evident that a lot of research went into producing it. The book feels almost like a practice exercise for The Corrections--similar themes handled with less assurance--and although it's not nearly as good, fans of The Corrections may be interested in reading this book to trace the origins of the better novel.

Bill 2006-04-15

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Let me say first of all that I loved "The Corrections" which is why I was eager to read another offering from the same writer. But this book does nothing right. Every character is unlikable. The plot (or one of the many plot lines) involves the "evil corporation" cliche that dominates so many books and quickly became tiresome. And I can't imagine that this book ever got past an editor. Some of the prose was so poorly written I was literally laughing out loud. I rarely stop reading a book once I've started but with only 40 pages left of this 500 page novel, I gave up. I had no interest in the story or any of the characters and just couldn't stand to read another page.

What a waste or real talent.