Crossroads
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $42.99
Publisher Description
"Narrator David Pittu superbly transports the listener into the lives of the Hildebrandts, a family with many secrets." - AudioFile Magazine
This program includes a bonus conversation between the author, Jonathan Franzen, and the narrator, David Pittu.
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.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this complex and poignant novel, Jonathan Franzen explores how American life changed during the 1970s. Russ, the patriarch of the Hildebrandt clan, is losing his grip on both his family and the suburban Chicago church where he serves as pastor. Russ’ lust for another woman strains his relationship with his wife, Marion, who has her own fascinating issues to work through. Each of the four Hildebrandt kids has strayed from Russ’ accepted path, exploring drugs, sex, and a strangely alluring youth group led by a rival pastor. Franzen uses each teenager’s relationship with the church to reveal a ton about their character, from Becky’s unnerving infatuation with Jesus to Perry’s descent into drugs to Clem’s struggle to choose between college and the military. David Pittu’s contemplative and pastoral narration draws us into the fascinating family dynamics and accentuates Franzen’s keen eye for nuanced character development. Crossroads is sure to be one of the most discussed—and argued-over—books of 2021.
