Crossroads (novel)

Last updated

Crossroads
Crossroads (Jonathan Franzen).png
First edition cover
Author Jonathan Franzen
Audio read by David Pittu
Cover artist Rodrigo Corral [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesA Key to All Mythologies
Release number
1
Genre Family saga
Set inNew Prospect, Illinois, 1971–1974
Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date
October 5, 2021
Media typePrint (hardcover), e-book, audio
Pages592
ISBN 978-0-374-18117-8 (First edition hardcover)
813/.54
LC Class PS3556.R352 C76 2021

Crossroads: A Novel is the sixth novel by American author Jonathan Franzen, published on October 5, 2021. It is a family saga set during the 1970s and centers on the Hildebrandt family in the fictional small town of New Prospect, Illinois. [2] It was first announced on November 13, 2020, by Franzen's publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [3] [4]

Contents

The novel is the first volume in a projected trilogy titled A Key to All Mythologies. [5] Franzen intends the trilogy to "span three generations and trace the inner life of our culture through the present day." [6]

Plot

Crossroads follows Russ and Marion Hildebrandt, whose marriage is close to collapse, and their four children, Clem, Becky, Perry, and Judson. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the Hildebrandts, and most are set in the fictional New Prospect Township of suburban Chicago.

Advent

The first section, "Advent," takes place in the winter of 1971. Russ, an associate minister at First Reformed Church, flirts with a young widow, Frances Cottrell, and stews over his rivalry with the charismatic Rick Ambrose. Russ has been forced out of Crossroads, the popular youth group he founded at the Church, in favor of Rick's more popular – and less liturgical – style of leadership.

Both Perry and Becky have recently joined Crossroads. Precocious Perry has resolved to stop dealing pot and become a better person. Becky, a popular cheerleader, mistrusts Perry and thinks of him as a cynical schemer, though she is close with her elder brother, Clem. She has also clashed with her parents over a $13,000 inheritance she received from Marion's late sister, Broadway actress Aunt Shirley. Initially she attends Crossroads at the urging of Tanner Evans – "a bell-bottomed dreamboat" and aspiring musician on whom she has a crush – but eventually has a religious awakening of her own.

Clem, on the other hand, has had a sexual awakening with his college girlfriend Sharon, but he decides to end the relationship, drop out of school, and forfeit his draft deferral in order to fight in the Vietnam War out of a sense of moral obligation. Meanwhile, Marion is surreptitiously attending therapy sessions, at which she recounts traumatic episodes from her past, including an affair with a married man named Bradley Grant and a subsequent psychiatric breakdown. These episodes took place in Los Angeles shortly before she met Russ, and Marion has hidden them from her family, despite her increasing concern for Perry's mental stability. At Frances' urging, Russ tenuously reconciles with Rick.

Easter

The second section, "Easter," begins in the spring of 1972. Crossroads takes its annual service trip to Arizona, where Russ has connections with the Navajo community dating back to his alternative service in Arizona as a conscientious objector during World War II. Russ attends the trip as a chaperone, as does Frances, with whom he has recently smoked pot for the first time. Following a confrontation with a group of young Navajo men, who object to the all-white Church group's presence on the territory, Russ and Frances sleep together. Marion is on vacation in California, ostensibly taking Judson to Disneyland and visiting an uncle, but in fact attempting to rekindle her relationship with Bradley. However, she makes peace with her own marriage when she realizes that Bradley has become unattractive in her absence. Perry has developed a cocaine addiction and, also with Crossroads in Arizona but neglected by Russ, he ends up in hospital after overdosing, being robbed, and committing arson.

That summer, Becky and Tanner take a trip around Europe, and Becky becomes pregnant, ending her aspirations to attend college. Back in New Prospect, living with Tanner and their daughter, Gracie, Becky becomes estranged from her parents. Russ and Marion have grown closer, but are thoroughly absorbed in caring for Perry, who has undergone several expensive rehab visits since his overdose in Arizona. Strapped for cash and partially alienated from New Prospect's community, they plan a move to a new pastoral posting in rural Indiana.

Becky has also fallen out with Clem, who – sent away by the draft board – embarked on a lengthy journey through Central and South America, becoming a jaded day laborer. The book ends in the spring of 1974, when Clem returns to New Prospect to reunite with Becky, and, possibly, his parents.

Background

Franzen began writing Crossroads in early 2018, [7] and completed it during the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. [8]

Franzen has said that it was during the writing of Crossroads that he first fully embraced his place as "a novelist of character and psychology," as opposed to a novelist of form or social commentary. [8] [7] He attempted to restrict himself to "a strict realist narrative," and in this regard the project differed from his earlier novels. [9]

Franzen also sees Crossroads as his first attempt to write "a family novel," where, in his view, a true family novel should span multiple generations and thus show "how patterns replicate themselves." [7] [9]

Religious themes

The project first arose from Franzen's conception of a single character, inspired by a new acquaintance who – like Russ in Crossroads – had a Mennonite background. [7] As a teenager, Franzen belonged to a church youth group called Fellowship, which is the subject of his essay "The Joy Breaks Through" in The Discomfort Zone and which resembles Crossroads.

However, in Crossroads, Franzen approached religion as primarily "an emotional experience":

It wasn't my conscious intention, but I think I produced a book that has essentially no theology in it... I think the questions for me are, am I a good person? What can I do to be a better person? I don't think people are, by and large, saying, 'I want to be good according to some external standard.' I think they're wrestling with it in a more personal and specific way. [7]

Historical setting

Asked why he chose to set Crossroads in the early 1970s, Franzen pointed to the close link between religion and progressive movements in the United States at that time – a time, that is, before Christianity was decisively associated with right-wing politics. He was also interested in the aftermath of the civil rights and anti-war movements and in the fact that "you started to see the first young people who were actually more conservative than their parents." Moreover, the 1970s had been the "most important decade of [his own] life." [7]

Franzen has also said that he found it appealing to write about the past, rather than the present, during the years of the Trump administration, which he felt he "could not make sense of in real time." [7]

A Key to All Mythologies

Franzen initially envisaged writing a single "super-novel" of three sections, with each section set 25 years apart. However, he decided to expand the project after beginning work on the first section, set in the 1970s. The first section, Crossroads, thus became the first in a projected trilogy. [8]

The trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, is named after Reverend Casaubon's unfinished manuscript in Middlemarch . [7] Franzen has said that the "mythologies" which interest him are "irrational belief[s]" [8] – "the fundamentally irrational basis for everything we think and do and espouse":

I have been thinking a lot about the inescapable nature of religion. Even if it is uncoupled from transcendent beliefs or metaphysical structures, everyone still organizes their life around something that can't be proved. I would say this goes particularly for the virulent atheists... [O]bviously, that phrase ['a key to all mythologies'] came to mind because if everyone has a mythology, it's only a matter of listing what they are, and suddenly you're thinking of a trilogy of novels. Of course, there is the fact that Casaubon dies in Middlemarch before he finishes his project. And undertaking writing three books in my 60s, I thought, 'Well, that's a funny little joke.' [7]

The trilogy will eventually reach the 2020s [10] and will center on the Hildebrandt family throughout, following their children and possibly some of their grandchildren. However, Franzen intends Crossroads and each of its two sequels to be "freestanding," and thus prefers to view the trilogy as "a trio of novels." [8]

Reception

Crossroads received favorable reviews, with a cumulative "Positive" rating at the review aggregator website Book Marks, based on 48 book reviews from mainstream literary critics. [11] Bookforum called it Franzen's "finest novel yet," his "greatest and most perfect novel," [12] and Dwight Garner of the New York Times said it was "warmer than anything he's yet written, wider in its human sympathies, weightier of image and intellect." [13] According to the Times Literary Supplement :

Crossroads is largely free from the vices to which Franzen's previous work has been addicted: the self-conscious topicality; the show-off sophistication; the formal heavy-handedness. It retains many of his familiar virtues: the robust characterization; the escalating comedy; the virtuosic command of narrative rhythm. [14]

Critics especially praised the character of Marion, whom Garner called "one of the glorious characters in recent American fiction." [13] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Not all reviews were unequivocally positive. A review in Vulture said that, in comparison to the better among Franzen's earlier novels, Crossroads seems "not only muddy and unstylish but determinedly and self-righteously so." Arguing that, other than Marion and Perry, the Hildebrandts are "boring" characters – and "boring in exactly the same way: stubborn, narrow, flummoxed, risk averse" – the review lamented the absence of the "weird words, arcane shit, and glorious tangents" which animate Franzen's earlier work. [20] The Brooklyn Rail , arguing that Russ's story "read as if it's been told too often in American fiction," regretted that Franzen had not further developed the storylines involving the Navajo, a black inner-city church, and the female Hildebrandts, Marion and Becky. [21]

It was selected for The Washington Post 's "10 Best Books of 2021" list. [22]

A "novel of ideas"

Reviewers noted that, in Crossroads, Franzen turns further away from his earlier aspirations towards writing "systems novels." The London Review of Books wrote, "Franzen certainly did what we wanted him to do: Crossroads is a family story that's interested in people, not systems." [18] Yet several reviewers commented on the novel's overt concern with the notion of virtue and, in this respect, its thematic overlap with novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [10] [23] According to the Chicago Review of Books :

Maybe the most attractive aspect of Crossroads is its depth of moral, capitalist, and religious contemplation—discursions that thankfully do not present via authorial (or authoritative) monologues... Franzen has reinvigorated the contemporary novel by offering a vision for how fiction can still serve as the preeminent vehicle for exploring humanity's most consequential ideas. [24]

The New Republic said that the novel is "closer to a novel of ideas" than to a social realist novel:

...though it's not quite this either. Unlike a more typical novel of ideas... there are no lectures or staged debates. Characters are more than mouthpieces, although they and their discussions of being good are relatively flat. On some level, Franzen seems to know this, as the novel's plot ultimately undercuts its philosophizing. The irony of Crossroads is that it's a novel of ideas about the inadequacy of ideas... [10]

Kathryn Schulz of the New Yorker agreed that Crossroads exhibits such a tendency towards philosophizing, and suggests that this is occasionally to the novel's detriment:

...[S]ome part of Franzen... is forever turning outward, toward the grand sweep of history and the prevailing customs and troubles of our era. Sometimes his attempts to square those two scales are successful... [But] he is at his finest when writing about the Midwest, the middle class, midlife crises, middlingness in general. The farther he ventures from all that, the shakier his plots become, the less organically they arise from his characters... In such moments, the characters seem subservient to a set of ideas... [23]

Depiction of women and people of color

The New Republic said that the role of "materially starved-but-spiritually rich indigenous people" in the novel suggested that "[t]here is a critique to be made here about neocolonialism and the white man's fantasy of the exotic Other." [10] In the Irish Independent , Naoise Dolan criticised the novel's portrayal of women and people of color, allowing that it accurately depicted "a particular consciousness" but questioning its literary value. Crossroads, she wrote, "treats anyone who's not white as one of its motifs, its character development moods." [25]

However, others held that people of color are more convincingly rendered in Crossroads than in Franzen's earlier novels, [12] [23] argued that the depictions of the Navajo reflect more about Russ than about Franzen, [15] [17] or pointed to the irony present in those depictions. [26]

Style

The most common complaint among critics was that the novel's prose style is mediocre. Rumaan Alam, writing for the Nation , noted a dearth of "lovely sentences" in Crossroads, but said that the middling prose style is compensated for by "the charms of plot and momentum, characters and conversation." [15] Similarly, an otherwise positive review in the Times suggested that "the prose is bad" and described Franzen as "a major writer with a minor style," though he remains "highly readable." [27] According to Vulture, the novel contained some "breathtaking" sentences but many more "inert" ones. [20] The Times Literary Supplement said that its "frictionless style... sometimes feels a bit lacklustre." [20] And Schulz said of Franzen:

...his prose has grown looser and laxer; never a showy author, he now sometimes scarcely seems like a good one. He has become so assertively styleless that he appears to have deemed linguistic pleasure not only inferior to but anathema to all other literary aims. Whole chapters—almost whole books—go by without a beautiful line or an arresting image... Franzen does not always seem to be doing the best he can. [23]

Conversely, Wyatt Mason argued in the Wall Street Journal that Franzen's prose is excellent. [28]

Several reviews commented on the awkwardness of the novel's sex scenes. [20] [25] [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin J. Anderson</span> American science fiction author (born 1962)

Kevin James Anderson is an American science fiction author. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E. and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequel series. His original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award–nominated Assemblers of Infinity. He has also written several comic books, including the Dark Horse Star Wars series Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Dark Horse Predator titles, and The X-Files titles for Topps. Some of Anderson's superhero novels include Enemies & Allies, about the first meeting of Batman and Superman, and The Last Days of Krypton, telling the story of how Superman's planet Krypton came to be destroyed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Foster Wallace</span> American writer (1962–2008)

David Foster Wallace was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times's David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Franzen</span> American writer

Jonathan Earl Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections, a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His novel Freedom (2010) garnered similar praise and led to an appearance on the cover of Time magazine alongside the headline "Great American Novelist". Franzen's latest novel Crossroads was published in 2021, and is the first in a projected trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Gaddis</span> American novelist (1922–1998)

William Thomas Gaddis Jr. was an American novelist. The first and longest of his five novels, The Recognitions, was named one of TIME magazine's 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005 and two others, J R and A Frolic of His Own, won the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. A collection of his essays was published posthumously as The Rush for Second Place (2002). The Letters of William Gaddis was published by Dalkey Archive Press in February 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff VanderMeer</span> American writer (born 1968)

Jeff VanderMeer is an American author, editor, and literary critic. Initially associated with the New Weird literary genre, VanderMeer crossed over into mainstream success with his bestselling Southern Reach Trilogy. The trilogy's first novel, Annihilation, won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards, and was adapted into a Hollywood film by director Alex Garland. Among VanderMeer's other novels are Shriek: An Afterword and Borne. He has also edited with his wife Ann VanderMeer such influential and award-winning anthologies as The New Weird, The Weird, and The Big Book of Science Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Herbert</span> American author (born 1947)

Brian Patrick Herbert is an American author who lives in Washington state. He is the elder son of science fiction author Frank Herbert.

<i>Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire</i> 1996 multimedia project created by Lucasfilm

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is a 1996 multimedia project created by Lucasfilm. The idea was to create a story set between the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and to explore all commercial possibilities of a full motion picture release without actually making a film. The venture was intended to reinvigorate interest in the franchise ahead of the theatrical Special Editions of the Star Wars trilogy released the following year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Smiley</span> American novelist (born 1949)

Jane Smiley is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oprah's Book Club</span> Talk show segment of books chosen by Oprah Winfrey

Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the American talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new book, usually a novel, for viewers to read and discuss each month. In total, the club recommended 70 books during its 15 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Stroud</span> British author

Jonathan Anthony Stroud is a British writer of fantasy fiction, best known for the Bartimaeus young adult sequence and Lockwood & Co. children's series. His books are typically set in an alternative history London with fantasy elements, and have received note for his satire, and use of magic to reflect themes of class struggle. The Bartimaeus sequence is the recipient of the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards. Stroud's works have also been featured on ALA Notable lists of books for children and young adults. In 2020, Netflix announced a TV series based on Lockwood & Co., with filming initiated in July 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lev Grossman</span> American novelist and journalist

Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist who wrote The Magicians Trilogy: The Magicians (2009), The Magician King (2011), and The Magician's Land (2014). He was the book critic and lead technology writer at Time magazine from 2002 to 2016. His recent work includes the children's book The Silver Arrow, and the screenplay for the film The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, based on his short story.

<i>The Recognitions</i> Novel by William Gaddis

The Recognitions is the 1955 debut novel of US author William Gaddis. The novel was initially poorly received by critics. After Gaddis won a National Book Award in 1975 for his second novel, J R, his first work gradually received new and belated recognition as a masterpiece of American literature.

Jennifer Weiner is an American writer, television producer, and journalist. She is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, published in 2001, was Good in Bed. Her novel In Her Shoes (2002) was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, and Shirley MacLaine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Wells (author)</span> American horror writer

Daniel Andrew Wells is an American horror and science fiction author. Wells's first published novel, I Am Not a Serial Killer, was adapted into a movie in 2016.

<i>Freedom</i> (Franzen novel) 2010 novel by Jonathan Franzen

Freedom is a 2010 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Freedom received general acclaim from book critics, was ranked one of the best books of 2010 by several publications, and called by some critics the "Great American Novel". In 2022, it was announced that Freedom would be adapted for television.

<i>The Corrections</i> 2001 novel by Jonathan Franzen

The Corrections is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-20th century to "one last Christmas" together near the turn of the millennium. The novel was awarded the National Book Award in 2001 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002.

<i>Desperate Characters</i> (novel) Book by Paula Fox

Desperate Characters is a 1970 novel by Paula Fox.

<i>Warm Bodies</i> 2010 novel by Isaac Marion

Warm Bodies is a novel by author Isaac Marion. Described as a "zombie romance", it makes allusions to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The author, based in Seattle, originally wrote a short story titled "I Am a Zombie Filled with Love". Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, acquired the publishing rights to the full novel in early 2010.

"Why Bother?", originally published as "Perchance to Dream: In the Age of Images, a Reason to Write Novels", is a literary essay by American novelist Jonathan Franzen. It is often referred to as "The Harper's Essay". First published in the April 1996 issue of Harper's magazine, the essay concerns the persistence of reading within the context of technological growth and distraction. Franzen recounts his meditations on the state and possibility of the novel form, often against the backdrop of his personal experience, eventually concluding that the novel still has potential cultural agency in the United States, and often gains it by paradoxical drives of both culture and author.

<i>Purity</i> (novel) English-language novel by Franzen, published in 2015

Purity is a novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. His fifth novel, it was published on 1 September 2015 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

References

  1. ↑ Alam, Rumaan (September 22, 2021). "Sometimes You Can Judge a Book by Its Cover". Slate . Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Crossroads". US Macmillan. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  3. ↑ Milliot, Jim (November 13, 2020). "New Franzen Novel Set for October 2021". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  4. ↑ Somers, Erin (November 13, 2020). "Briefs: New Books From Franzen and Bridges, Chronicle Expands In Games and Toys". Publishers Marketplace. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  5. ↑ Miller, Laura (September 27, 2021). "Franzen's Latest Does Everything a Great Novel Should Do". Slate . Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  6. ↑ Chandler, Mark (November 16, 2020). "New Franzen Trilogy Announced in US". The Bookseller . Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Emre, Merve (September 30, 2021). "Jonathan Franzen Thinks People Can Change". Vulture.com . Archived from the original on October 31, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Jonathan Franzen Talks with David Remnick About 'Crossroads'". The New Yorker Radio Hour . October 1, 2021. Archived from the original on November 13, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  9. 1 2 Steger, Jason (October 1, 2021). "'I was reviled, of course, partly because of my dust-up with Oprah Winfrey'". The Sydney Morning Herald . Archived from the original on October 1, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Doherty, Maggie (October 8, 2021). "Jonathan Franzen, America's Next Top Moralist". The New Republic . ISSN   0028-6583. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  11. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen". Literary Hub . Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  12. 1 2 Guan, Frank (Fall 2021). "Hell Can Wait". Bookforum . Archived from the original on September 7, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  13. 1 2 Garner, Dwight (September 27, 2021). "Jonathan Franzen's 'Crossroads,' a Mellow, '70s-Era Heartbreaker That Starts a Trilogy". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  14. ↑ Gordon, Edmund (October 1, 2021). "Divorce, Doubt and Doobies". The Times Literary Supplement . Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  15. 1 2 3 Alam, Rumaan (October 18, 2021). "Leaps of Faith: Jonathan Franzen's Midwestern Saga". The Nation . ISSN   0027-8378. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  16. ↑ Grady, Constance (October 5, 2021). "Jonathan Franzen's Crossroads is an opus on humiliation. It's very good". Vox . Archived from the original on October 5, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  17. 1 2 Somers, Erin (September 29, 2021). "Jonathan Franzen sticks with what works—and loses what doesn't—in the excellent Crossroads". The A.V. Club . Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  18. 1 2 Friedell, Deborah (October 21, 2021). "Sex with Satan". London Review of Books . Vol. 43, no. 20. ISSN   0260-9592. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  19. ↑ Rothfeld, Becca (October 4, 2021). "Jonathan Franzen's Best Book Yet". The Atlantic . Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Young, Molly (September 30, 2021). "A So-So Franzen Novel Is Still Better Than Most Books. That Said..." Vulture.com . Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  21. ↑ Garrett, Yvonne C. (October 5, 2021). "Khadija Abdalla Bajaber & Jonathan Franzen". The Brooklyn Rail . Archived from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  22. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2021". The Washington Post . November 18, 2021. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
  23. 1 2 3 4 Schulz, Kathryn (September 27, 2021). "The Church of Jonathan Franzen". The New Yorker . Archived from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  24. ↑ Brickner-Wood, Brady (October 18, 2021). "Salvation and Calamity in "Crossroads"". Chicago Review of Books . Archived from the original on October 18, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  25. 1 2 Dolan, Naoise (October 3, 2021). "Jonathan Franzen's Tantalising 'Crossroads' Has Three Generations of One Family in a Quandary". Irish Independent . Archived from the original on October 3, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  26. ↑ Day, Jon (October 5, 2021). "Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen — funny, moving and crackling with life". The Financial Times . Archived from the original on November 12, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  27. ↑ Marriott, James (October 12, 2021). "Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen review — major writer, minor style". The Times . Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  28. ↑ Mason, Wyatt (October 6, 2021). "'Crossroads' Review: God and Country in Franzen's Swinging '70s". The Wall Street Journal . ISSN   0099-9660. Archived from the original on October 28, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  29. ↑ Arieff, Allison (October 4, 2021). "Review: Jonathan Franzen's riveting family drama is a labyrinth of secrets and the sacred in suburbia". San Francisco Chronicle . Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.