Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen is a novel that explores the moral and spiritual crises of a Midwestern family in the 1970s. It is the first volume of a trilogy that aims to trace the inner life of American culture through the present day. The novel is divided into three sections, each narrated by one of the six siblings of the Hildebrandt family: Russ, Clem, Becky, Perry, Judson, and Marion. Each section covers a different period of time and focuses on a different aspect of their lives.

The first section, Advent, takes place in December 1971 and introduces the main characters and their conflicts. Russ is an associate pastor at a liberal church who is unhappy with his marriage to Marion, who has her own secrets from her past. Clem is a college dropout who decides to enlist in the Vietnam War after having an affair with his girlfriend Sharon. Becky is a cheerleader who joins Crossroads, a youth group led by Rick Ambrose, but later has a religious awakening. Perry is a drug dealer who wants to quit selling pot and become a better person. Judson is an aspiring writer who struggles with his identity and sexuality.

The second section, Easter, begins in spring 1972 and follows the Hildebrandts as they go on an annual service trip to Arizona with Crossroads. There they encounter various challenges and revelations that test their faith and values. Russ reconnects with his old friend Frances Cottrell, who helps him cope with his guilt over leaving her behind when he moved to Chicago. Clem meets Tanner Evans, a charismatic musician who becomes his mentor and lover. Becky falls in love with Tanner's brother Danny, who has a dark secret from his past. Perry befriends an elderly Navajo man named Klahatikaiya, who teaches him about his culture and spirituality. Judson meets David Sangermaneau, an openly gay writer who inspires him to embrace his own sexuality.

The third section, Summer, spans from June 1972 to December 1974 and depicts the aftermath of the events in Arizona and how they affect each member of the family. Russ decides to stay with Frances instead of returning to Marion. Clem faces discrimination and violence for being gay in America at that time. Becky discovers that Danny has been molesting children at Crossroads and confronts him about it. Perry learns that Klahatikaiya has died of cancer and honors his memory by writing a book about him. Judson publishes his first novel under a pseudonym but faces backlash from some critics for being too explicit about sex.

Crossroads is a novel that combines historical fiction with family drama and explores themes such as faith, morality, identity, love, war, violence, art, literature, politics, race relations, gender roles, mental health issues etc.. It also features many references to real-life events such as Watergate scandal , Kent State shootings , Vietnam War , Roe v Wade decision , etc.. The novel is rich in details and characters but also complex and challenging for some readers due to its length (592 pages), structure (multiple perspectives), language (dense prose) etc.. However , it also offers insights into American society , culture , history , religion etc.. through its interwoven narratives . It is one of Jonathan Franzen's most ambitious works yet ..

This was such an epic read that I was excited to dive into but just got slogged down by the shear length. Sadly wasn't the book for me but I still appreciated the opportunity to listen to an early audio copy! Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

The Hildebrandt family is a typical one of the 1970's. They live in a suburb outside of Chicago where Russ, the father, is an associate pastor. Marion is his wife who has been a stay at home mom to the family, supporting her husband in his job and their children in their childhood. Clem is the oldest child. He is in his freshman year at college where he has discovered both sex and philosophical discussions about what is moral and where should a person make a stand. Becky is the queen bee of her high school, pretty and popular. Perry is a year behind Becky in school, an acknowledged genius. The youngest son is ten and a typical kid. They seem like a perfect family.
But poke behind the scenes a bit and everything looks different. Russ and Marion are estranged and thinking about a divorce. Russ feels slighted at the church where a teenage ministry he started, Crossroads, has been taken over by a younger, more hip minister. He also feels slighted because he has only slept with one woman in his life, Marion, and is making plans to change that fact. Clem is disillusioned with college and his student deferment which has kept him from Viet Nam and abruptly gives up his scholarship and leaves college. Becky is tired of being the virtuous pastor's daughter and is exploring the counterculture while Perry is selling drugs to other school kids, even those as young as the seventh grade while developing a drug habit of his own. All of these issues explode over a year of family life and everything will be different at the end.

I've read pretty much everything Jonathan Franzen has written and this novel is probably my favorite. It is more approachable than some of his earlier work and the characters are more relatable. The sarcasm that can sometimes overtake Franzen in his work is absent here and the reader is drawn in and retains interest until the end. Those who grew up in the 1970's will be especially interested in this novel which echoes that time faithfully. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Jonathan Franzen's CROSSROADS was just so good. The way he begins the journey with his characters was simply perfection. I cannot wait for the other books in the series to come.

People tend to complain about Jonathan Franzen's "unlikeable" characters. That's never bothered me. I see them as flawed, and very human. Here, in the form of the dysfunctional (of course) Hildebrandt family, he gives us a new batch to consider. The head of the family, Russ... flawed barley scratches the surface. He's the associate minister of a church, but he's almost ridiculous. And it would be so easy to laugh at his foibles. He is most definitely in the wrong--some of the time. But at other times his heart is truly in the right place and he's either inept, or he's got bad luck, or he's being actively undermined. And that's a lot to say about one character. But the thing is, you could write essays about each member of the family, that's how rich and complex and contradictory each of them is. Add to that the various alliances and enmities that influence each and every interaction between and among the five members of this family.

There's a lot going on in the pages of this long book. (A lot. I don't even know where to start talking about the Native Americans.) Franzen does an amazing job painting a portrait of the 1970s, reminding me of things I'd forgotten from my childhood. I'm not summarizing the plot at all, because all plot, all action, comes from character in this book. I could literally see infinite stories with these people. They're just so intriguing in their frequently extreme behavior. At nearly 600 pages, I was hanging on every word, and was actually disappointed to come to the end. Which ends--I might add--on a bit of a cliff hanger. Am I supposed to know, instinctively, the choice made? Well, I don't.

Thankfully, this novel is the first of a planned trilogy, each taking place about 25 years apart, carrying the family to the present day. I think this is brilliant in conception and brilliant in execution. Many will disagree with me, that's okay. This was easily one of my favorite books of the year and I eagerly await the further adventures of the Hildebrandts!

It's also uncool to admire Jonathan Franzen, but man, he's amazing. This work is a fantastic example of his ability to see inside people's minds and all the drama that goes on in their heads. An American pastor's family is falling apart at the seams as the Vietnam War draws to a close. While Franzen does not identify as a Christian, he speaks sensitively and clearly about the Jesus Movement and how individuals of faith may have managed it throughout this turbulent decade. It's both thrilling and heartbreaking at times.

Jonathan Franzen's Crossroads is a sprawling saga of a family in turmoil. Set toward the end of the Vietnam war, the story delves deeply, but alternatively into the lives of the Hildebrandts, a family headed by a rigid pacifist pastor father whose strong commitment to social justice clashes with his own insecurities and inability to reach his congregation, particularly the younger congregants drawn to a more charismatic younger pastor.
But it is not only the pastor whose story is complex. His wife, in therapy, struggles with the feelings she has suppressed raising a family of four children - a son in college contemplating dropping his draft deferment, a popular daughter in high school, a drug-addled, but brilliant teenage brother and the youngest brother, whose character is least developed.
Filled with flashbacks and backstories, Franzen's novel mounts a compelling narrative about the family members' attempts to tackle their personal demons. The book had me engrossed and, like life, it leaves many loose ends and no tidy ending.

I found listening to audio book, even with a great narrator, tedious. I failed to have compassion for any of the members of the dysfunctional family.

4 stars

This is such a well constructed & developed novel. The characters are so spot on, the book ties together a lot of complex issues & dynamics in meaningful ways, & though it’s a pretty long book it never lost its momentum or impact for me. It’s a well written, nuanced, & perceptive tragi-dramedy of a Midwestern, small town, mainline-Protestant minister’s family in the 70’s. It features appallingly flawed yet realistic & sometimes sympathetic characters, with a genuine poignancy that simultaneously flirts with absurdist elements.

[What I liked:]

•I appreciate the exploration of Christianity in this story, juxtaposed against non-religiosity & Native American religion. We have Russ, a pacifist Mennonite kid who gets shunned by his parents when he becomes a mainline Protestant; Marion, raised as a secular Jew who becomes an intensely devout yet unorthodox Catholic, then later an apathetic mainline Protestant; Clem, who scorns all metaphysical belief; Becky, who doesn’t care much about religion either way before suddenly becoming a born-again Baptist; Tucker, a devout Christian who’s also a stereotypical sexually liberated hippie; the youth pastor, who is an arrogant yet somewhat reasonable preacher of a social justice gospel; a pastor of a black inner city church who is patronized by culturally insensitive do-gooding suburbanites; & all sorts of people with all sorts of religious & spiritual beliefs in between.

•I appreciate how Christianity is explored through these characters’ often conflicting personal beliefs, & is not reduced to a straightforward set of fundamentalist beliefs that everyone just believes blindly. Definitely there are Christians irl who are fundamentalists, but it’s nice to see an exploration of non-evangelical/mainline Protestant beliefs with some plurality in a historical fiction novel set in the Bible Belt.

•Oh man, the portrayal of Perry’s character is heart-wrenching, personally relatable, & just super well written. I felt so sympathetic towards him. He’s just a fantastically developed character.

•All the main characters are relatable, realistic, infuriatingly foolish, laudably nuanced & well developed, & a touch absurd.

—The dad, Russ, thinks he’s well meaning & self-justified, but he’s deluded, emotionally immature, naïve, & in self-denial. He lets an a-hole manipulate him, & lets himself be consumed by a destructive hate—that he perceives as somehow holy?

—The mum, Marion, needs serious help, struggles with self-esteem & crushing ex-Catholic guilt, is lamentably self-centered, & flip-flops between being a resentfully dutiful & frumpy housewife & a wild child.

—Clem is a frustratingly rigid black-&-white thinker, which results in a massive disillusionment that he can’t be self-reflective enough to make sense of. He ends up wasting his potential in a frustrating aimlessness.

—Becky is infuriatingly stuck up & superior, yet she relatably craves love & security. Her contradictory moralistic superiority/performative humility & self-centered amoralism is baffling yet all too believable.

—Perry, oh Perry! Such a tragic kid. He’s possibly a sociopath that flip-flops between trying to be a good person who makes rational decisions, & just not giving a fuck & letting his arrogance lead him down horrendously self-destructive & obviously foolish paths.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•Becky’s eventual resentment of her parents & coldness towards Clem seem based on thin motivations. I mean people are irrational about that kind of stuff, but especially since we didn’t get to see her thought processes in coming to those feelings up close they were hard to believe.

•The ending is super abrupt. I mean it didn’t need to go on much longer, but still, Becky & Clem’s much-built-up-to reunion felt anticlimactic & ended so abruptly without a clear (to me) reason for that narrative choice. Yes, this is a first book in a series so I don’t expect that all threads should be fully tied up, but give me at least a little, temporary, resolution—or just end the story a bit sooner before the climax that was teased but never delivered. Especially since, according to the writer in the interview included at the end of the book, the next installment in this series will pick up decades later & focus on different characters.

CW: homophobia, infidelity, substance abuse, sexual assault/abuse, suicide, terminal illness, racism, eating disorders, mental illness/psychosis, workplace sexual harassment, human trafficking, colonialism/white savior complex/exoticism of minority cultures, ableism

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

4.5. A solid return for Franzen after his forgettable novel, Purity. He's a great writer, but I wouldn't mind him developing his editing skills as the book is overlong with some tedious dialogue exchanges.

This was an intense character study which wasn't for my taste. Jonathan Franzen is an impressive writer and was truly able to convey strong familial struggles in a convincing and engaging way. Although it objectively was a good book, I felt that the ending was rushed and very little was satisfyingly wrapped up.

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 4/5

Russ Hildebrandt is the (unhappy, and frankly to me fairly unlikeable) associate pastor at a suburban Chicago church. Set in the early 70s, the story follow a year or two in the lives of Russ, his wife, and his three oldest children through their multiple perspectives — each in searing, fully introspective, sometimes cringeworthy but always honest detail. Each seeks to balance desires, morality, and a need to belong in the world into which they are born. Russ finds his marriage joyless and finds passion in thoughts of a young, divorced parishioner, his wife Marion has a terrible and secret history which fills her with shame, Clem struggles with the moral luxury of his Vietnam deferment, Becky finds God in the counter culture, and young Perry — an insufferable genius — tries to find ways to calm his brain.

It is a masterful undertaking with broad strokes painted through millions of tiny perceptions, struggles, self-doubts, and experiences. The culture of the time comes to life in this way as well — the interactions and expectations between men and women and the birth of Women’s Lib, the awakening of the counter culture which itself had many guises, Vietnam, and the approach to helping the “poor.” Very strong themes on faith, religion, and relationships with God, though I wouldn’t call this an overly religious book.

The writing was amazing. As I listened to this on audio, I was not able to capture any of the outstanding lines which frustrated me as there were many. On the other hand, listening to the book forced me to “read” it slowly so that I was able to savor the language in a way my normal reading speed does not allow. On the first hand, some of the sections inspired recoil. Sometimes it feels like its best to not know what really goes on inside a person’s head — especially a person prone to self-analysis and neuroses as these people all are. If I had been reading, rather than listening to, this book, I might have skimmed a little of this, though in truth I would have missed the experience of truly inhabiting a mind completely unlike my own — I’m sure that is good for me!

Apparently, this is the first of a multi-generational trilogy, which I did not know until after I finished it. This book provides closure on the story — no cliffhangers.

CROSSROADS is a brilliant, sweeping family saga.

The first in a trilogy, this chunky 592-pager focuses in on the Hildebrandts, a family of six in a small town in Illinois in the early 1970s. Franzen deftly toggles between the two parents and the three older siblings, all of whom have moments of insufferability (except maybe the mother, Marion).

Every review I've so much as skimmed gives at least some of the plot away and, while I find that understandable -- the characters are so richly created, to describe them it makes sense to mention things they've done/might do -- I feel a certain responsibility to *not* do the same.

So instead, the reading experience: I felt like I was transported into the Hildebrandts' world. I enjoyed luxuriating in having sunk into an at times tedious novel -- for all the more satisfying was it when the plot sped up, when things came together, when a character or moment surprised me.

The audiobook narrator did a great job. With only an audio-galley available to me, I had some concern about following along, but his diction and cadence helped (as did slowing down to 1.75x rather than my more typical 2+).

I'll certainly be tuning in for the next installment of the trilogy, and I hope friends read this one so we can discuss.

Franzen has done it again. I'll read anything this guy writes! Much like The Corrections and Freedom, Crossroads is a Family Drama that is, at it's heart, a book about the American Family. I listened to the Audiobook and the narration was excellent. While the story dragged at times, and I thought there were several places that could have been cleaned up for a shorter read, it all works in the end in Franzen's signature style. Dealing with all the issues of the time - God, drugs, identity - this book takes the reader deep into all the ways a family picks at its own scabs until the scars are so deeply imbedded, they may never heal. This 600+ page book is only the first in a series, but I'm definitely there for the rest of the saga.

Jonathan Frazen is back with this incredible book about a pastor and his family as they navigate who they are in the midsts of the tumultuous 70s.

As each character questions their relationship with their family, with god, and with their community at large, they also turn inward and try to remain true to themselves.

The depth of the characters is meticulous, the plot had me flipping the pages (which at 500 or so is saying something.) I can’t recommend this story enough. It’s truly wonderful.

Wow. Jonathan Franzen's new novel is a masterpiece, and this audio presentation of it was phenomenal. It was over 24 hours from start to finish, but I never wanted it to end. I'm really looking forward to the second and third installations of this planned trilogy.

What to say about this book? Well, do you need almost 600 pages to tell this story? It took 30% of the book to set the stage, and nothing really of consequence happens until almost the end. Then the author uses the cliche of a letter to bring the reader up to date and the book ends. Granted this is supposedly part of a trilogy, but the ending felt rushed. I am not sure if I will read the next one. I don't think Franzen is for me. The character development is superb, but no one is happy in this story. Reading this book just proved to me that I don't like books about dysfunctional families, drugs and deep psychological analysis of the characters. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

This was my first Jonathon Franzen novel and it did not disappoint. I realize I’m late to the Franzen fan club but I was blown away by the intensity of the character development in this novel, especially considering there were five narrators and many years covered. This book introduces the Hildebrandt family and describes their lives in the early 1970’s. Being the first of a three part series, we can expect to see the Hildebrandts again in other tumultuous American decades in the subsequent novels.

While the scenarios the family members find themselves in at times are larger than life, their responses are incredibly relatable. You can expect to find yourself both irritated and reluctantly endeared toward the family, not unlike real family life. Early on, I kept finding my expectations subverted in the way only the most adept writers can execute. The structure of the novel creates a truly unique and layered expression of American life in the early 1970’s. I became very invested in the family and I’ll be looking forward to the second and third novels, though after listening to 26 hours of audio, I don’t mind waiting for the next installment.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ALC.

Recommended for: those who enjoy epic family dramas.

Content Warnings: Violence, Sexual Abuse, Alcohol/Drug Use/Abuse, Mental health, Self Harm

To start, for having been born in the Midwest, I do not think Mr. Franzen fully understands midwesterners. While I recognize these characters from books, it was very difficult for me to recognize as those same that I live and work amongst. That being said, I did very much enjoy this book and, for the most part, could not put it down. The characters are spiteful and vindictive and largely lacking in the grace they should be showing based on the faith they profess, but this did not slow me down in the least. The mother grew up with awful struggles, her husband wished to save her, but is much too insecure to save anyone. Three-fourths of the children are extreme narcissists but they were raised by two more so this is largely unsurprising. I guess to put it bluntly, the people are awful, the story is not.

This was my first Franzen, I do not think it was a masterpiece, but I am chomping at the bit to see where this is going.

The narration is excellent. Great voice work, really well done. I honestly prefer to read print editions of books, but the narrator here really made Crossroads a fun listen.