45 review for The Republic of Bad Taste

1. 

   5 out of 5

   Abe Aamidor – Apr 16, 2016

   Shockingling weak, even amateurish short story. Compare it to Adam Johnson's work on North Korea - Franzen looks like he's read a couple of newspaper articles about the latter days of East Germany, and that's all. Nothing feels authentic about the locale. The love story is absurd, not in the sense that love can be irrational, but it just happens in this story, we're just told about it, violating the rule "show me, don't tell me." Franzen just tells us love has happened. He tells us a girl is bea Shockingling weak, even amateurish short story. Compare it to Adam Johnson's work on North Korea - Franzen looks like he's read a couple of newspaper articles about the latter days of East Germany, and that's all. Nothing feels authentic about the locale. The love story is absurd, not in the sense that love can be irrational, but it just happens in this story, we're just told about it, violating the rule "show me, don't tell me." Franzen just tells us love has happened. He tells us a girl is beautiful, but not how so. And he telegraphs the overall ending - it's a twentysomething guy falling for a 15-year-old girl, and of course in two years (a lifetime for her) the man will mean nothing. Way too much dialog here, as well. Talk, talk, talk. I don't feel I got inside anyone's head here; I don't "know" East Germany from reading this; and I'm pretty bitter, actually, that The New Yorker published this. I've suspicious that's it's a case of what they call "the get" in the media. The got Franzen! They got Franzen! Franzen is no intellectual heavyweight here, too - his musings about time, eternity and the existential - wait, I feel like I'm 19 again myself! As the story is set in 1989, I'm suspicious that the story was written in 1989 or thereabouts, when Franzen was polishing his craft. If so, he should know better than to get published just for the sake of being published. The story reads like something you'd present at an MFA seminar in 1989 (thankfully the story is not trendy or arty, just mediocre and predictable). There's a reason all fiction submission to any magazine should be "blind" and this is a clear case of it.

2. 

   5 out of 5

   Sayantan Ghosh – Jun 24, 2015

   Tragi-comic murder story seeped in old school romance, mended with narratives of modern history. Where else, but in a Jonathan Franzen excerpt.

3. 

   5 out of 5

   Darth Vader –

4. 

   5 out of 5

   Tex –

5. 

   4 out of 5

   Rtgr vn Dngn –

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Alexander Anthony –

7. 

   4 out of 5

   Rick –

8. 

   5 out of 5

   bluebead –

9. 

   4 out of 5

   Dani –

10. 

    5 out of 5

    Jessica –

11. 

    4 out of 5

    Jon –

12. 

    4 out of 5

    Abigail –

13. 

    5 out of 5

    Macy White –

14. 

    4 out of 5

    Michael Interrante –

15. 

    5 out of 5

    Sara –

16. 

    4 out of 5

    Omi Chowdhury –

17. 

    4 out of 5

    Kate –

18. 

    5 out of 5

    Leland William – Jun 09, 2015

    Excellent story. Published in New Yorker Fiction Issue.

19. 

    4 out of 5

    Jenny –

20. 

    5 out of 5

    Raul –

21. 

    4 out of 5

    Dyscover –

22. 

    4 out of 5

    Dan –

23. 

    5 out of 5

    book –

24. 

    4 out of 5

    Joanna –

25. 

    5 out of 5

    Heather Dornberger –

26. 

    5 out of 5

    Mary –

27. 

    4 out of 5

    Andy Balicki –

28. 

    5 out of 5

    Jana –

29. 

    4 out of 5

    Maiy Azize –

30. 

    5 out of 5

    Anakin Skywalker –

31. 

    5 out of 5

    JP –

32. 

    4 out of 5

    Mina Zalnasky –

33. 

    5 out of 5

    Ahmad K. Minkara –

34. 

    4 out of 5

    Laura –

35. 

    5 out of 5

    Kathy –

36. 

    4 out of 5

    Alina Laura –

37. 

    4 out of 5

    Sean Quinn –

38. 

    4 out of 5

    Caitlin –

39. 

    4 out of 5

    Lauren Alexander –

40. 

    4 out of 5

    Karie Luidens –

41. 

    4 out of 5

    Vettius29 –

42. 

    4 out of 5

    Tamara Hancock –

43. 

    4 out of 5

    Laura Gardiner –

44. 

    4 out of 5

    Ari –

45. 

    4 out of 5

    David Duvall –