I just finished "Strong Motion" by Jonathen Franzen. I read and enjoyed "The Corrections" and "How to be Alone" so I thought I'd read some more of his work. "Strong Motion" is a very odd novel. It is odd because 1/2 of it reads like popular fiction and half reads like "serious literature." The novel contains a conventional thriller plot-line that could have easily been mistaken for Michael Chrichton's work: Mysteriously, a number of earthquakes are occuring in the Boston area. A seismoloigst from Harvard stumbles on some info that leads her to believe a Corporation is responsible for the earthquakes. The novel in my mind is so bogged down with details related to this plotline, that it is hard to stand. The plot was just irratatingly conventional. But there are other things going on in the work that make it so I don't feel that my time was completely wasted. For one, the novel is satirical. Not many conventional thrillers consist ENTIRELY of bad guys. Franzen seems to hate everybody in the story, including his protagonist. Well, not completely (the characters will redeem themselves eventually, a bit). This may be considered bold to take such an antagonistic viewpoint..or it might be just naive. The writing also stands out: Franzen spends a considerable amount of time on sensory details, creating tone. His major motif is comparing "natural" sites and smells, with man-made sights and smells (which he obviously finds considerably interior. He really feels the world is quite disgusting, in fact. This negative view is provoking, certainly) But I found that I wanted to just get through his description..even though I enjoy detail, there seemed to be so much that it actually worked to make it less discernable the environment he was creating in the scenes. I guess the word for his writing is muddled. Some people may appreciate it. Another thing I liked is when the narrator (or Franzen) inserted some explicit biting social commentary. For one, these times were completely unexpected, because so much of the novel reads like pop fiction (the satirical bent, obvioulsy, is compatible with social critique..but the tone stays neutral for long parts of the novel). There are definitely some stunning passages, including one where he describes the life on raccoon in comparison to the protagonist.
I also liked that the novel was in part a traditonal morality tale, about greed.
I was also interested by a sub-plot about abortion, though I am not yet quite sure why it was included. The Corrections also hit hard at large issues of national or global interest in the same way.
Yet another thing I liked is the outsider perspectives we get: we get the perspective of an immigrant radio producer, who believes in quality radio programming and the perspective of the protagonist's father, a marxist historian.
And we also have a love story, which, though made to be complex, still seemed a bit romanticized. We are made to believe, of course, that love can save us all, that we should put all of our hopes for happiness into the love basket.