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A review by edgwareviabank
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Very few writers I've read can write dysfunctional families as well as Jonathan Franzen. After a mixed experience with Freedom (a book I enjoyed and yet am not sure I completely understood), and giving Purity a miss, I was hoping Crossroads would be closer to The Corrections, which I absolutely loved many years back.
I found Crossroads very well written, with brilliant observations on both individual personalities and the situations that shape families and communities; in that sense, I got my wish. But it was a slog. A beautifully written slog I'm glad to be done with. If it's true there are sequels in the works, I have to ask myself whether I really want to spend more time with the Hildebrandt family. I do love Franzen's writing, and so, the odds are I'll stick with them for at least another book. After I take a long break from them, which may have to be at least a few years.
The amount of (especially religious) guilt weighing on the characters at almost any given moment is the element that slowed down my progress. From a character development point of view, it makes perfect sense: the way these people tie themselves into knots to justify their desires to themselves, as they live within a system that forces their hand into denying they have desires at all, is presented in a very powerful way. From a reader point of view, and especially a reader who has little patience for the mental gymnastics organised religion gets believers to engage in, it can be exhausting to read. It is, still, proof of how well Franzen has brought the Hildebrandts and their world to life: I often felt an almost physical need to grab them by the shoulder and shake them.
I could spend a lot of time talking about all the ways character development, conflict, and sense of time and place make Crossroads worth reading, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that what I've written so far is all it comes down to for me. My star rating would be higher if I'd enjoyed spending time with the Hildebrandts, as opposed to feeling, at times, as if seeing their inner lives unravel was some kind of penance the book demands of the reader. Now that would be very on-brand, considering much of the subject matter.
I found Crossroads very well written, with brilliant observations on both individual personalities and the situations that shape families and communities; in that sense, I got my wish. But it was a slog. A beautifully written slog I'm glad to be done with. If it's true there are sequels in the works, I have to ask myself whether I really want to spend more time with the Hildebrandt family. I do love Franzen's writing, and so, the odds are I'll stick with them for at least another book. After I take a long break from them, which may have to be at least a few years.
The amount of (especially religious) guilt weighing on the characters at almost any given moment is the element that slowed down my progress. From a character development point of view, it makes perfect sense: the way these people tie themselves into knots to justify their desires to themselves, as they live within a system that forces their hand into denying they have desires at all, is presented in a very powerful way. From a reader point of view, and especially a reader who has little patience for the mental gymnastics organised religion gets believers to engage in, it can be exhausting to read. It is, still, proof of how well Franzen has brought the Hildebrandts and their world to life: I often felt an almost physical need to grab them by the shoulder and shake them.
I could spend a lot of time talking about all the ways character development, conflict, and sense of time and place make Crossroads worth reading, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that what I've written so far is all it comes down to for me. My star rating would be higher if I'd enjoyed spending time with the Hildebrandts, as opposed to feeling, at times, as if seeing their inner lives unravel was some kind of penance the book demands of the reader. Now that would be very on-brand, considering much of the subject matter.