Book of the week: Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Franzen’s new book is an absorbing look at the ‘last, confused years of the Age of Aquarius’
Jonathan Franzen has always written his best novels when he resists the urge to dissect America and goes back to “basics”: anatomising family life, said James Walton in The Daily Telegraph. He did this brilliantly in the “all-conquering” The Corrections (2001), and he has done so again in his equally superb sixth novel. Part one of a trilogy titled “A Key to All Mythologies” (a reference to Mr Casaubon’s “famously futile life’s work” in Middlemarch), Crossroads is set in the early 1970s, in the fictional Illinois town of New Prospect.
It centres on five members of the dysfunctional Hildebrandt family: Russ, a “liberal Christian pastor”; Marion, his downtrodden wife; college student Clem; and his teenage siblings Becky and Perry. “Moving from one character to another with unhurried efficiency, Franzen inhabits all of them with total conviction and a Middlemarch-like ability to know more about them than they know themselves.”
At the heart of the novel is a progressive youth group called “Crossroads”, which is presided over by a charismatic young pastor named Rick, said Thomas Mallon in The New York Times. Although it’s based at his church, Russ himself has been ejected from the group, having used “sexually frank” language while counselling a teenage girl.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Humiliatingly, however, his children still attend, though their motives for doing so aren’t especially pure: Becky is there because she fancies the guitarist; Perry sees an opportunity to deal drugs. In the background, larger issues loom – the Vietnam War, changing sexual mores – but these don’t unduly disrupt Franzen’s family saga. “Nicely textured”, and full of “nimble” dialogue, Crossroads is an absorbing look at the “last, confused years of the Age of Aquarius”.
Personally, I found it an uneven book, said Claire Lowdon in The Sunday Times. While the “granular characterisation” is predictably brilliant – Franzen is nothing if not the “bard of the backstory” – the plot is marred by a lack of momentum; then, late on, Franzen implausibly “brings all his characters to a big personal crisis at exactly the same moment”.
I disagree, said Xan Brooks in The Guardian: this book is a “pure pleasure to read” from start to finish. “One hopes that Franzen’s trilogy will stay the course, chasing the Hildebrandt family through the 1970s, past Watergate and the energy crisis, all the way to Ronald Reagan’s brash new American morning.”
4th Estate 580pp £20; The Week Bookshop £15.99
The Week Bookshop
To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Will auto safety be diminished in Trump's second administration?
Today's Big Question The president-elect has reportedly considered scrapping a mandatory crash-reporting rule
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
One great cookbook: 'A Girl and Her Greens' by April Bloomfield
The Week Recommends Vegetables deserve the best. In this chef-author's hands, they achieve their ultimate potential.
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published
-
DeSantis appoints Florida's top lawyer to US Senate
Speed Read The state's attorney general, Ashley Moody, will replace Sen. Marco Rubio in the Senate
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Forbidden Territories: an 'ambitious and ingenious' exhibition
The Week Recommends 'Extravaganza' of a show features an array of works celebrating 100 years of surrealist landscapes
By The Week UK Published
-
Jonathan Sumption shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The medieval historian recommends works by Edward Gibbon, Johan Huizinga and others
By The Week UK Published
-
A Real Pain: Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg star in 'uproariously funny' drama
The Week Recommends The film, dubbed an heir of Woody Allen, follows Jewish American cousins who travel to Poland in memory of their late grandmother
By The Week UK Published
-
Titaníque: 'outrageous' Céline Dion parody is a lot of fun
The Week Recommends 'Frothy' musical spoof of the blockbuster film with 'sparkling' performances
By The Week UK Published
-
Collared by Chris Pearson: a 'fascinating' history of dogs
The Week Recommends 'Useful' and informative book examines our changing relationship with canines
By The Week UK Published
-
6 impressive homes in Toronto
Feature Featuring floating stairs in Lytton Park and a two-tiered infinity pool in Banbury-Don Mills
By The Week Staff Published
-
Samantha Harvey's 6 favorite books that redefine how we see the world
Feature The Booker Prize-winning author recommends works by Marilynne Robinson, George Eliot, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Better Man: Robbie Williams's 'dynamic' monkey biopic is 'occasionally over ripe'
Former Take That star is replaced with a CGI chimpanzee in musical-stuffed film
By The Week UK Published