Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Strong Motion

Sort by

Filter by

Filtered by

5 starClear filter

79 total ratings, 18 with reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From Australia

From other countries

Amazon Customer

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 August 2021

Verified Purchase

Has to be read to be believed. Franzen is a great writer.

jackey

One of the finest books I ever read

Reviewed in Italy on 1 July 2021

Verified Purchase

I liked the style of this novel, it's beautifully written. I liked the story too: there's romance, there's mistery and a great plot. The characters are original, real, very humane. Only shame is the way this unique book was typed: full of spelling, typing, punctuation mistakes of all types. It deserved much, much more!!

Paul McDonald

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 January 2015

Verified Purchase

great service great book

Filomena

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 October 2015

Verified Purchase

all good

Er Jwee Chiek 余瑞傑

Thank you mom, I love life....There are more women in heaven because they suffer more and the last will be first

Reviewed in the United States on 21 June 2017

Verified Purchase

The earth is much more fragile than we think. Convulsion of the earth crust beneath New England USA and also quakes in human dramas in Strong Motion: A Novel was author Franzen's dire warning of human capitalistic greed and irresponsible exploitation of mother earth and hence accelerating its destruction? Yet another greenie's exasperated scream at the hopeless human race? Sure it was, but besides that we have the human interests of Franzen's brilliant dramatic tale (soap operaish but I love it) on the Hollands, an upper middle class well educated Bostonian family. A hippie professor father and a newly rich Brahmin breed mother (thanks to grandpa), both parents under-appreciated by their two young adult children. Intriguing web of lives revolving the family members stretching three generations from grandfather to the spoilt brat son culminating in also quakes shaking up their lives. My second Franzen tale and it was a huge leap from being impressed with the first to great admiration with the second. Many new and exciting discoveries of Franzen treasures for me. Franzen revealed his animal loving side by including long and short observations of behaviours of wild animals as well as the domestic kind. What grabbed my heart chiefly was because Franzen wrote a big pro-life chapter where he treated us to phenomenal dialogue between the pastor leading the pro-life movements and a 30 year old Rene carrying a 5 week old foetus she didn't want it or courage or nature's normal mother instincts to see the pregnancy through and raise her child like all mammals do. An engaging repartee with the Pastor coming up on top (because he won me over convincingly which was easy because he was preaching to the converted) even though he failed to dissuade Rene. Mostly because the father had taken off and her heart was broken. Like all emotional unstable people, stupid errors are committed. The cruel irony of life was brilliantly depicted when Rene would have her life involuntarily endangered and nearly expired on the day when her foetus had its life terminated against its will. Depicting yet the drama of American lives, Franzen moved us to Boston after engaging us with life in St Louis with The Twenty-Seventh City: A Novel (Picador Modern Classics) . I definitely enjoyed this second novel more because the plot and the characters were more engaging. A delectable Franzen writing style solidified for me. Love the deadpan humor of Franzen. He dropped gems along the way using his unique linguistic style to describe a common situations or actions. But one has to pay attention to spot them. A conspiracy theory on the gunman who shot Rene had fueled the excitement during the latter half of the book. Jealous lover? Corporate evil trying to silence the whistle blower? I had guessed wrong but they were indeed juicy endings to ponder as I approached the finale.

3 people found this helpful

Glen Williams

Something Wonderful: An Appreciation

Reviewed in the United States on 3 May 2016

Verified Purchase

I didn't intend to stop and 'review' strong motion but I can't resist making the point that everything that I have read by JF soars so far above 'predictable', 'some twists' of 'full of surprises' as to render such categorization totally irrelevant, 'Strong Motion' no less than the rest. Franzen is widely appreciated but probably not deeply. He surely will be in the fullness of time when the ultimate critical mass of discriminating readers have weighed in and he is recognized as the American Dickens. I can only express my appreciation for his talents in terms of superlatives which cannot convey any sense of the uniqueness of his gifts for narration and characterization. His writing is powerful, sexy and deeply artistic.He simultaneously exposes writing as craft and elevates it to the highest level. I suppose you can tell I am something of a fan. Don't let that deter you.

9 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Extremely underrated

Reviewed in the United States on 5 August 2018

Verified Purchase

I read Strong Motion after first reading The Corrections, Freedom, and Purity in order as each was released. I loved all 3 of these books, and became an unapologetic fan of Franzen's writing, carefully savoring every word and character in these books. I was hesitant to read Strong Motion, expecting it to be a raw and lesser novel that could lower my opinion of his work. I was wrong.

I loved this book immensely. It is Franzen through and through, with wonderful depth of character, sharp observations, and a layered plot to put them on display. He speaks with incredible authority on a wide variety of esoteric subjects ranging from seismology to artificial intelligence (in a remarkably prescient way for 1992) to chemical production to Boston neighborhoods to American history. There are 10 books worth of richness in this single novel, an extremely rare treat for the paying reader. While the book is now over 25 years old, it is not dated. Rather, the zeitgeist of the era is on full display and actually adds to the fun of reading it now for someone like me who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s.

The many metaphors throughout the book (earthquakes for starters), the central love story, the family dysfunction, and the fearlessness to take on heavyweight issues via everyday extremely imperfect and only barely likable characters, are what make the book so wonderful. I finished it days ago and I've found it is staying with me, and fully expect it will continue to do so. The book has its flaws, but they are minor and pale in comparison to its overall brilliance. Writers today simply do not play at this level, and the book is a masterpiece in its own way. I'm surprised it is not more recognized, as if Franzen barely existed before The Corrections. Loved it and will read it again.

6 people found this helpful

Chris Panagakis

Rock On

Reviewed in the United States on 1 August 2011

Verified Purchase

What's to say other than Franzen continues to deliver with this novel? His language is as precise and engagingly sophisticated as ever without being impenetrable. Unlike "The Corrections," the novel's POV stays with mostly one character, which is more befitting the scope of this story. Franzen's ability to write from a woman's perspective continues to amaze and delight, and he explores some corners of the human condition he's not taken us to before. It bears saying that, as with all other of his novels, "Strong Motion" isn't really about earthquakes in recent-past Boston or whatever other plot features the story might turn on. Instead, it's a thoroughly enjoyable tale about being young, smart, naive, and in love.

2 people found this helpful

Elizabeth Keats

And this was written BEFORE 9/11 and Enron!!?

Reviewed in the United States on 6 May 2002

Verified Purchase

I think Frantzen is downright scary! Not only does he write our inner worlds so accurately, most people hate him and his books... but he also seems to know our outer world in an eerily perceptive way. Just read the pages describing a "decadent people's" response to a catastrophe, and there you are in our 9/11 reality. Those pages gave me goosebumps. And then, a few pages on, we watch all the monsters who created a financial and environmental disaster, skip away with their millions. Hmmmm...is he not only damn talented with words, with deep, deep understanding of what people really are, of what love is, what sacrifice is, but also what our corrupt society is. Frankly, I keep being amazed, and I can't wait to read everything he's written. Is it possible that readers become so upset with him because he's bringing literature to a new realm? A realm we may not be ready for? A realm we're not comforable with because it's so much less "arty"--despite his beauty with words, but so much more real. No his characters are not likeable--are we, when we're all naked and confused and scared and selfish? I don't think so. But they--with only one or two exceptions in his books--are loveable. We come to know his characters the way God must. From the inside, where, with all the ugliness and flaws, there is grace and beauty. And ultimately, for all the satire, the irony, the cynicism, these books are rich in hope, in redemption, in grace. Damn this is a writer who Knows Something!

13 people found this helpful

Remotemark

Couldn't put it down

Reviewed in the United States on 27 August 2013

Verified Purchase

First off, a caveat -- I am a Franzen fan. I think this may be his best book yet. It has his familiar jarring breakdown of the prototype American family, and really delves into the substance of romantic relationships, in an almost educational way. His description of how we casually treat our physical environment, so admirably done in Freedom, is a bit hysterical, but effective. As soon as I read the two last books in my pile, I'm rereading this.

2 people found this helpful

Need customer service? Click here

‹ See all details for Strong Motion

5 star		41%
4 star		29%
3 star		21%
2 star		7%
1 star		2%

Strong Motion › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Strong Motion

Filtered by

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From Australia

From other countries

Strong Motion

›

Customer reviews