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  • Crossroads

  • A Novel
  • Written by: Jonathan Franzen
  • Narrated by: David Pittu
  • Length: 24 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (40 ratings)

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Crossroads

Written by: Jonathan Franzen
Narrated by: David Pittu
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Publisher's Summary

2021, Time Magazine Best Books of the Year * Amazon.com Best Books of the Year * NPR Best Book of the Year * The Guardian (UK) Best Books of the Year * Los Angeles Times Holiday Books Guide * Washington Post Best Books of the Year * Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year * Vogue Magazine Best Books of the Year * Minneapolis Star Tribune Holiday Book Recommendations * New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year * Seattle Times Best Books of the Year * Financial Times Books of the Year * Oprah.com Best Books of the Year * Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year * Slate Book Review Best Books of the Year * USA Today Best Books of the Year

Jonathan Franzen’s gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads.

It’s December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless - unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem’s sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who’s been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate.

Jonathan Franzen’s novels are celebrated for their unforgettably vivid characters and for their keen-eyed take on contemporary America. Now, in Crossroads, Franzen ventures back into the past and explores the history of two generations. With characteristic humor and complexity, and with even greater warmth, he conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own.

A tour de force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, its action largely unfolding on a single winter day, Crossroads is the story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis. Jonathan Franzen’s gift for melding the small picture and the big picture has never been more dazzlingly evident.

David Pittu is a two-time Tony Award nominee, as well as the award-winning narrator of countless audiobooks, ranging in genre from young adult (Scholastic’s 39 Clues series) to spy fiction (Olen Steinhauer’s The Last Tourist and Milo Weaver series) to the contemporary fiction of authors such as Jeffrey Eugenides (The Marriage Plot), Donna Tartt (The Goldfinch), and many more.

Pittu received the Audie Award for Best Male Solo Narration for The Goldfinch, which also received the Audie for Best Literary Fiction.

Not only a veteran theater actor, he works regularly in film and television. He lives in New York City.

©2021 Jonathan Franzen (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

What listeners say about Crossroads

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

My new favorite Franzen

This book is reminiscent of The Corrections as the story takes place in the weeks leading up to Christmastime and features the interrelated lives of the Hildebrandt family members. The author’s ability to succinctly tangent into tunnels of descriptive language that reveal the inner workings of each character is what makes this another great Franzen novel to enjoy more than once.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

So well written

Good read/listen but The Corrections is still my favorite. Definitely worth a listen! Incredible character development.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A vivid and compelling portrayal of the 70’s.

Fantastic book. I loved all the compelling, rich characters who were lovely, annoying, ridiculous, tragic, confusing and hilarious. I especially enjoyed hearing their back stories. I was transported back to my teenage years in the 70’s being a part of a similar church youth group. Franzen captured the time so vividly. This is an excellent book club read, especially
for people of a certain vintage.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

10 hours listening to this and want my time back.

So I managed to get through about 10 hours of this before I couldn't stand listening to it anymore. I started thinking that there are a lot of great books out there and life is too short to spend it listening to any more of this one. I know this sounds extreme, but that thought actually crossed my mind.

It started with the author's inability to accurately capture the time frame he was writing about. People did not talk this way in 1971. He did not capture the mannerisms, the way people related to each other or the expressions they used in conversation. Somehow he managed to portray the clothing styles, but that is easy because there are photos. Maybe it was because the author was only 11 years old at the time so he had no frame of reference.
Anyway, just a couple of examples in an endless stream of boo boos that some editor ought to have picked up. People did not punctuate their written sentances with "dot smiley face". That is from text messaging. No cellphones in 1971. When characters relate something in what would then be called a Jesus Freak Circle, although the author is unaware of that, they were thanked for "sharing". Nope. No one said that. They rapped. And if is was something negative then that "was a bummer man" . The woman who worked on Sharon's farm was from Croatia. Really? Croatia was not a country in 1971. It was part of Yugoslavia and would be for another 20 years. These errors are constant and hard to overlook. They just jolt you out of the story being told.

What really caused me to give up on this, was the author's failure to develop female characters beyond stereotypes. Becky who is a young woman of 18 is portrayed with the maturity level of a 13 year old. Her mother is a train wreck straight out the of Rolling Stones' "Mother's Little Helper". It was is the middle of her 19th Nervous Breakdown that I decided to find something better to read.


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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Robotic narration

This was ok. The narration was very flat and monotone and doesn’t capture the humour of the writing.

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