One of his early novels...and a good one! Great characterizations wrapped into a interesting story line. ( )

Forte movimento" è nello stesso tempo la storia di un amore difficile, un giallo "ambientalista" e una commedia di costume, narrata con il sottile umorismo e il personalissimo sguardo sul mondo dell'autore delle "Correzioni". Il giovane Louis Holland si trasferisce a Boston proprio quando un'ondata di terremoti colpisce la città, uccidendogli la nonna acquisita, una ricca guru New Age. Mentre viene coinvolto nella disputa famigliare per l'eredità, Louis si innamora di una brillante e complicata sismologa dell'università di Harvard, Renée Seitchek. Insieme, i due scopriranno la pericolosa verità sull'origine dei terremoti, svelando gli oscuri segreti di una potente industria chimica e pagando duramente le conseguenze della loro curiosità. Nel secondo romanzo di Jonathan Franzen, scritto dopo La ventisettesima città e prima de Le correzioni, l'inconfondibile voce dell'autore, il suo sguardo acuto e critico sulla società americana e la profonda autenticità e originalità dei personaggi sono già presenti in tutta la loro pienezza.

I will say right off the bat that I did not particularly enjoy Strong Motion. Had the plot been reduced to two or three story lines I think I would have liked it more. As it was, there was a lot going on in Strong Motion and I found myself getting distracted very easily. The beginning of the book starts off simple enough. Louis Holland arrives in Boston right before a series of earthquakes start plaguing eastern Massachusetts. The first quake kills his wealthy grandmother, Rita Kernaghan, in a freak accident while no one else is even injured. From the moment you meet Louis you sense there is something off-centered or even dangerous about him. He becomes fixated on his grandmother's inheritance of twenty two million dollars. A battle ensues between him and his parents and sister for control of the money. In the meanwhile he has to balance his attraction to a Harvard seismologist studying the tremors that rock the eastern side of Massachusetts. ----- --- knows the earthquakes are more than just a natural phenomenon (since when has the eastern seaboard been a hotbed for shifting earth?) and soon her focus is on Sweeting-Aldren, a petrochemical and weapons manufacturer, as the culprit. Is it possible they drilled holes deep enough to bury toxic waste causing Teutonic plates to collide? Throw in feminist issues, pro-life controversies, capitalist greed, and environmental degradation and you have the whole of Strong Motion. ( )

This book was hard to get into and hard to finish. I found it pretty boring and I didn't like any of the characters. I disliked all of the earthquake jargon and side stories that didn't flow very well. It took me an extremely long time to finish this book because I hemmed and hawed every time I picked it up whether or not I even wanted to finish it. I found his book "Freedom" so easy to read that I finished it within a week of picking it up so I was disappointed that this book wasn't very good. ( )

Nachdem Franzen mit den "Korrekturen" und "Freiheit" bekannt wurde, erlebten auch seine ersten Bücher weitere Auflagen, u.a. dieses hier von 1992. Eine dysfunktionale Familie wird dargestellt, deren Mutter 22 Millionen Dollar erbt, die zum Großteil in einer Chemiefirma stecken. Diese scheint für Erdbeben verantwortlich zu ein, die den Großraum Boston erschüttern.
Die Handlung hat noch eine Vielzahl weiterer Facetten: Politisch wird recht hellsichtig der Kapitalismus skizziert, sowohl aus seinen Sonnenseiten wie aus seinen Schattenseiten heraus:
Neben der Umweltkatastrophe legen hier auch die militanten Abtreibungsgegner den Finger auf die Wunde: Trotz aller politically incorrectness kommt man nicht umhin, dem Guru der Abtreibungsgegner zuzustimmen, wenn er die Mentalität des gierigen Nehmens ohne an die Konsequenzen zu denken anprangert - im Endeffekt die gleiche Geisteshaltung, wie sie zu Umweltkatastrophen führt.
1992 war George Bush US-Präsident und Franzen macht sich bereits Gedanken über den "geistig zurückgebliebenen Präsidenten" - und das vor der Herrschaft seines Sohns und vor dem, was uns mit Trump erwarten kann. Trump selbst wird im Buch zweimal als personifizierter gieriger Kapitalismus angesprochen.
Wäre das Buch aber nur politisch, wäre es nicht so schön zu lesen. Das Interessante ist dann eben doch die Verquickung in die Familiengeschichte, die wirklich gut konstruiert ist.
Ich kann der SZ nicht recht geben, die hier "eine der schönsten Liebesgeschichten dieser Zeit" entdecken will. Denn gerade die beiden Hauptfiguren Louis und Renée bleiben blass, genau wie ihre Beziehung. Mir ist von Anfang an unklar, wie dieser antriebslose Louis überhaupt jemals zu einer Frauenbekanntschaft kommt. Aber dieses kleine Manko macht wenig aus. Insgesamt wirken die Figuren dennoch plausibel und der Plot folgerichtig. Wenn man mal den Einstieg geschafft hat, ist das ein sehr spannendes Buch. ( )