The Twenty-Seventh City
by Jonathan Franzen
published
September 1st 1988
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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binding
Hardcover, 528 pages
isbn
0374279721
(isbn13: 9780374279721)
description
Dying St. Louis is turned inside-out by the appointment of a charismatic young woman from Bombay, India, as police chief, an act which launches the ci...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 572)
Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Jonathan Franzen
Hmm. It's hard to say this, since Jonathan Franzen has more talent in writing than I will ever have even tying my shoes. But compared to "Strong Motion" and "The Corrections", this book is tiresome, and falls unmistakably short of its ambitions. There are some hints of his gift (on more consistent display in later works) for hyper-perceptive and realistic accounts of the moment-by-moment consciousness of his characters; if only his regard for his characters in this one were...more
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This book has its good points. Towards the end it keeps you reading since you want to know what’s going to happen. This is a definite virtue. There are unpleasant people in it, and unpleasant events. What happens to Barbara Probst is particularly nasty, since most of it is planned in advance and Jammu thinks nothing of having her killed a) for reasons to do with her project b) for personal reasons, since she fancies Barbara’s husband.
Devi’s skill in killing her would-be murderers is un...more
Devi’s skill in killing her would-be murderers is un...more
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Long on plot. REALLY long on plot. Almost too much plot. Made it hard to keep track of things. I think I read that about Franzen's first two books- that he was heavily into plotting. Also hyper-intellectual. Found there was too much analysis and narration- not enough dialog. I also didn't understand the whole Saint Louis merger thingy- so that put me at a major disadvantage throughout the book. I thoroughly comprehend the major themes of the book: why the Indians were screwing with Saint...more
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Read in April, 2008
A friend of mine recommended this book to me because she knew I was from the St. Louis area. I was interested because I've read and enjoyed The Corrections. The story is a sort of alternative history about St. Louis in the 1980's. A woman from Bombay takes over as police chief of the city and changes things both politically and socially in the city. I enjoyed reading a story that had so many geographic references to an area I'm already so familiar with. As far as I know, most of the places Franz...more
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This book held a very intersting ballance between being a page-turning thriller and a slow-paced, almost boring novel of mid-city civics. Franzen's first novel, it should have replaced the map of St. Louis with a chart of characters, a la most Tolstoy translations; the geography never was quite as confusing as the fifty+ main characters, their relationships, and which corperations or city office they controlled.
The plot is oddly conservative, centering around a plot by foreign (Indian) inve...more
The plot is oddly conservative, centering around a plot by foreign (Indian) inve...more
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Read in November, 2006
recommends it for:
anyone who likes incredibly complex plots with many characters
This first novel by Franzen was alright. It's a big book to swallow at over 500 pages, and the plot is like swimming through a maze of tunnels filled with 90-weight gear lube. With upwards of 50 characters, I repeatedly found myself asking, "Now who was that again?" It must have taken me a month to finish it.
The story takes place in St. Louis, once the 4th largest city in the US, now the 27th. The main character, Martin Probst, who engineered and built the St. Louis arch, gets mixe...more
The story takes place in St. Louis, once the 4th largest city in the US, now the 27th. The main character, Martin Probst, who engineered and built the St. Louis arch, gets mixe...more
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Read in March, 1990
recommends it for:
Those interested in prophetic novels or the American novel.
I read this when it came out, which was at some point in the late eighties or early nineties. It was Franzen's first novel. It's a subdued thriller; perhaps an anti-thriller. Essentially, the government of East St. Louis, in the not-too-distant future, is gradually infiltrated by terrorists, several of whom are elected to positions in the city government. Franzen was being Neo-conservative here. I think he's changed a bit politically since this book came out. I bought it because a review I'd rea...more
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recommends it for:
conspiracy theorists
A good phrase to categorize this book would be to say it is a conspiracy theorists wet dream. A plot summary: St. Louis, MO, home to the big arch thingie, and...well, weather, and stuff (before I go on a tangent)--St. Louis is subject to a political invasion by a coterie of Indira Ghandi's "people", and caught up in the convergence are a number of (seemingly) random citizens of St. Louis, including the architect of the arch thingie and his family, among others. I really enjoyed the ...more
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Read in May, 2007
The book is long---over 500 pages and features upwards of 50 characters so it's a bit hard to follow...However, it's a great first novel by Jonathan Franzen, albeit murky.
My main problem with the book is that the interweaving plot is hard to follow and doesn't flow well. Or maybe I'm just stupid. Either way, not all of the characters and plots go as far as I would have liked AND the book is still long.
It does paint a very interesting and lucid picture of St. Louis (where Franzen spent h...more
My main problem with the book is that the interweaving plot is hard to follow and doesn't flow well. Or maybe I'm just stupid. Either way, not all of the characters and plots go as far as I would have liked AND the book is still long.
It does paint a very interesting and lucid picture of St. Louis (where Franzen spent h...more
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Read in October, 2008
The plot (a Bombay-led conspiracy to make a real estate killing in St. Louis by making a terrorist the police chief) is rather, um, implausible. But the Probst family's unraveling is interesting to watch.
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Read in June, 2007
GRIPPER!! This one kept me up late for several nights. As the entire conspiracy unravels and you've got this priviledged perspective on how everyone's allegiances are constantly shifting, this book will dominate your thoughts from start to finish. A few elements were over my head (I'm not very well schooled in economics or politics), but it didn't bore me for a second. There are so many moments where characters you sympathize with come really close to figuring out what's going on, but don't make...more
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Read in April, 2008
i really enjoyed the corrections and have read so much about his other books, i decided to give this one a try. it's an interesting story and of course cleverly written where the characters weave their way in and out of each others lives bringing the whole town together like a well knit sofa display . though i do not understand the ending. certain events happen and i don't understand who is to blame for it. especially with jammu at the end. and what martin will do. it just leaves things so unfi...more
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Read in November, 2008
I really like Franzen's voice, but this book suffers from a similar flaw as his Corrections, i.e. a certain amount of rambling, unnecessary story line. The Twenty-Seventh City could likely have been half as long and have had half as many characters and been a better novel for it.
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Around page 250 I wondered why I was still reading this. It's not that I hated it, more that it's not exactly a page turner and there's plenty of other things I would rather be reading. Confusing, bizarre plot features St. Louis' newly appointed Indian police chief and her attempts to get the entire city under her control. These attempts run the gamut from running over a man's dog to setting off bombs at a sporting event. There are a lot of characters but none are all that gripping. I was defin...more
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Read in August, 2007
I give up. I've been working on this book for over a month now and I'm only halfway through, so it's time I threw in the towel. There are too many characters and too much conspiracy; I can't keep track. I think my head was in a bad place when I picked this up, and I shouldn't hold that against the book. But really. After 250+ pages I should have at least found one character I care about, right? I'll leave a bookmark in it and maybe come back to it someday, but really, I doubt I will.
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The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
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Read in October, 2007
OK, if this book didn't contain so many references to Webster Groves I wouldn't have found it that great. "The Twenty-Seventh" city is a reference to St Louis and the plot is a bizarre takeover plot by Indian nationals. The identities of area notables and bigwigs are, by intent, not so carefully disguised and playing the game of "who's who" is fun. Find the place where Franzen goofs and calls Civic Progress by its real name, rather than the euphemistic title he gives it in th...more
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Read in February, 2008
Deception! The very few noble characters are ruined by the crooked ones. The character development was very well done; everyone turns out for the worst. The ending was catching and startling and crushed my hope of any return to order or comfort. Call me too much of a pessimist? I did a horrible job recommending it to a poor man about to pick it up in Switzerland and I think his vacation was better for it.
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