Rating: 
Summary: A little confusing at points, but fascinating and fun.
Review: This title came up on my Instant Recommendations, and I decided to give it a try after reading the reviews.It proved to be a throughly fascinating and entertaining read about human interactions and motivations. My only carp is that there's so much switching of viewpoints it got a little confusing about what was going on at a few points! But I won't call that a fatal problem by any means. All together this is a very good novel.
Rating: 
Summary: trouble in the heartland
Review: This was one of those books that kept me up at night. The story was very involving and Franzen's technique of alternating narrative perspectives among a large cast drew me on. I would look at the first line of the next chapter or sub-asterisk and feel compelled to find out what was going on with that character. I live in a city that is smaller than St. Louis, but the social stratication, economic segregation, and political altercations were all quite familiar. I was not particularly surprised to read the disbelieving reaction of a reviewer from St. Louis ("this is not my town!"). Franzen pre-zinged her by building up to an election that no one apparently cared about. You spend first 7/8 of the book being led to believe that the whole city is in an uproar about the "reign" of S. Jammu, only to have the election show that the county/city consolidation issue was only of interest to the players and to the media who were hyping it. No one else was paying any attention. This is a wickedly funny book, both in the way it deploys broad comic themes like the one above and also in little zingers aimed at various social groups. Franzen aims most of his barbs at what is presumably his own social milieu: the white suburban uppermiddle to upper class. But he has some left over for the black middle class and Indian socialists. As has been stated by other reviewers, Franzen is primarily a story teller and secondarily a stylist. There are, however, similarities between this book and D.F. Wallace's Infinite Jest. One obvious similarity is the epic scope. Another is the multi-personal narrative. The scathingly critical and borderline cynical perspective on politics. The recurrent dwelling upon the details of substance abuse (although Wallace is much more obsessive). The selection of an unlikely ethnic group as the source of an anti-American conspiracy. The occasional passages of pure hallucinogenic description. That Franzen wrote this book in the 80s is impressive. He saw a lot of stuff coming and yet a lot of the details of the book are charmingly dated (e.g., Probst's delight in the novelty of using a phone in a car). I found myself wondering what the (surviving) characters were up to today. I visited St. Louis in 1990 and found the downtown to be a sad and lifeless place (including the Disneyfication of Laclede's Landing). I hope the 90s were good to it.
Rating: 
Summary: zzzzz...
Review: Well I'll admit that I only read half of it, but I kept it around for a few months, thinking I SHOULD like it. Finally I gave it to the Salvation Army. Parts of it were fine, and there were some good characterizations (as another reader said); particularly the teenage girl and her folks living that white, UpperMiddleclass life. Franzen renders hum-drumness with amusing accuracy. But the political intrigue was hardly intriguing. It put me to sleep. Literally. I found myself skimming and skipping, then I just gave up. I like Franzen's essays, and I'm a fan of the crowd he runs with (DFWallace and co.), so this isn't the opinion of someone 'outside' the 90's writing thang. I get it. I just want to warn anyone thinking of buying this book to perhaps try another (will amazon really print this? Not that they shouldn't buy ANY books, just not this particular one!)
Rating:
Summary: Witty commentary on modern American politics and society
Review: What started off as a simple conspiracy-theory book evolved quickly into an interesting work about city politics and human interactions. The way Franzen's "perfect family" collapsed with just a slight nudge was disturbing, but amazingly realistic (although the Jammu-Probst love affair seemed a little contrived). Here's hoping that more than rain and voter apathy defeat the real-life power mongers. This was a fairly quick and interesting read, thought-provoking and thorough. Five out of five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Is it St Louis - or is it.... Berlin?
Review: Why Berlin?
Jonathan Franzen visited the "Literaturfestival" in Berlin in the fall 2003. He read out of his new to german language translated book 27th city.
When he was asked out of the audience, whether he -in a few words- could explain, why to read the "Corrections" Franzen answered: "Because it was well reviewed.." - Laughter :-) I have just read the german edition of 27th city. What I loved within this book:
The plot of setting someone into a state of crisis to manipulate him. It's a sophisticated modus of terrorism that the main attraction in this story, S. Jammu, deploys for her targets. One by one she and her friends take control over the key power holders of the municipal scenerie. And a whole lot of action, more than we faced at the "corrections". And a lot of cynical humour :-) Berlin and the county of Brandenburg are planning their merger. But the protagonists here are not half the way engaged as the pressure groups in St. Luis. But they could use the arguments stressed in this book. Neither do we have a female, aggressive, imported chief of police nor the investors that pump up the market in order to re-arrange the city's settings. But what we do have is: some old boys that feel sad and tired when some some social engineered guys come and kidnap their vision of happyness. Read it, love it, wait for more!
Rating:
Summary: 27 Excellent Management Tips is More Like It!
Review: Young Jonathan Franzen has wrapped some wise and careful management tips in the guise of a postmodern novel. Franzen's reputation as an east-coast management "guru" is well-known; less so is his incredibly pyrotechnic prose style. In "String Motion" (novel #2), "Fatherless Berkeley", and the upcoming "Recognitions" I was amazed again and again as the book, or, rather, each successive book, or, rather, each book, as I read them all on separate occasions, dropped from my fingers, spasmodic as they were from my helpless laughter and sheer astonishment as the flights of fancy Young Jonathan Franzen had taken me on. Now, this book about St. Louis: Franzen lays it right on the line. For example, in Chapter One he lists the seventeen reasons why businesses ought not to abandon cities like St. Louis and Kansas City for "Edge Cities" in the Sun Belt. (My favorite? Number 11: "The Missouri Breaks refers to Luck, Not To A River") In Chapter Five, Young Jonathan Franzen also limns, with subtle sagacity, the three most important aspects of successful vertical integration: vision, leadership, and courage. I couldn't have said it better myself. Please, if you're interested in literature that packs a wallop while doling out healthy ladle-fuls of business acumen--try "The Twenty-seventh City."
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