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Title: Good Pomo Mystery
Review: Franzen is a great talent, although Strong Motion, his other novel, is a better, more complex book. The basic plot revolves around Jammu, an Indian law-woman who is made police chief of St. Louis. The mystery side of the book is largely pedestrian. What is interesting is the way the Franzen weaves in the theme of suburban seperation from the inner-city. This theme is quite prescient given recent thought-media coverage of emergent suburban "pods" (see Atlantic Monthly Aug. 1998 for details). This book is ultimate vacation reading for post-modern elitist types.
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