The Twenty-Seventh City : A Novel

Praise for the Twenty-Seventh City

“Unsettling and visionary…The Twenty-Seventh City is not a novel that can be quickly dismissed or easily forgotten: it has elements of both ‘Great’ and ‘American.’…A book of memorable characters, surprising situations, and provocative ideas.”

— Michele Slung, The Washington Post

“Franzen’s tour de force (to call it a “first novel” is to do it an injustice) is a sinister fun-house-mirror reflection of urban America in the 1980s…. There’s a lot of reality out there. The Twenty-Seventh City, in its larger-than-life way, is a brave and exhilarating attempt to master it.”

— Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times

“Franzen goes for broke here — he’s out to expose the soul of a city and all the bloody details of the way we live…. Franzen has written a book of range, pith, intelligence.”

— Margo Jefferson, Vogue

“A weird hybrid of realism and fantasy: municipal science fiction. Everything proceeds from a daring, outrageously unlikely premise.”

— Terrence Rafferty, The New Yorker

“Mr. Franzen has proved with this immodestly ambitious first novel that he has talent to spare. His is a worthwhile entertainment, this picaresque tale the principal vagabond of which is its own sinuous plot.”

— Donna Rifkind, The Wall Street Journal

“He has the kind of ability that can take what one would have thought the most mundane of cities and render it as an utterly persuasive labyrinth of mystery and meaning.”

— Mark Feeney, The Boston Sunday Globe

“An imaginative and riveting examination of our flawed society. The Twenty-Seventh City provides a rare blend of entertainment and profound social commentary.”

— Christine Vogel, Chicago Sun-Times