Crossroads

A Novel

By: Jonathan Franzen

Narrated by: David Pittu

"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

©2021 Jonathan Franzen (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Loved, loved, loved every word

I gobbled this up as greedily as if someone had placed in front of me a resplendent chocolate cake. If I could give the narrator 10 stars, I would. This book was so important for me...the deconstruction of each member of the Hildebrandt family was done so masterfully, I rode along each word and each sentence with delight and admiration and often a sense of familiarity, even though I didn't grow up in a religious family. I can't wait for the next installment of the trilogy. I was very sad when the book ended. A great listen.

Best story, brought me back to the 70s and my childhood.

Jonathan Franzen has an incredible knack of being able to show each character’s deep insecurities and to explain the experiences that shape their perspectives on life, how siblings rarely have the same experience growing up in the same house with the same parents and family members, and how hard it is for people to see beyond their own wants and desires and needs. Incredible book! Great narrator!

Great novel, comical reader

I’ve been a big fan of of Jonathan Franzen and look forward to everything he writes, even this novel telling the tale of a dysfunctional family of completely disagreeable people (all of them except the youngest son). As for the performance, one thing I’ve learned from reading the reviews is how much your opinion can differ from that expressed by others. David Pittu’s narration of the story and the dialogue of the male adult characters was fine but his attempt at women’s voices and that of adolescent boys was awful (and Marion, Frances, Laura and Perry particularly cringing .)

Wanted to like it, but

Didn’t really care for the characters, disliked reader’s portrayal of characters, no real conclusion of substance. Disappointed overall.

Not worth the length - just wanted it to be over.

Interested me enough that I finished it. But not worth the time it took to listen to it.