Crossroads

A Novel

De: Jonathan Franzen

Narrado por: 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

Didn’t want it to end!

Franzen does not disappoint. Complicated, curious, relevant, thought-provoking. The best listen in a year! Narrator superb. I feel like I just saw a movie, the descriptions are so vivid. The story keeps a tension throughout, demanding you listen more or again! The author is brilliant!

The reader’s “woman” voice…ugh!!!!

I’ve rarely done reviews on here but I’m doing this in the hope that male readers will stop doing these awful voices for female characters. Every female in this book sounds whiny and petulant to the point where it’s almost impossible to like any of them. It almost feels like the reader doesn’t like women? And I doubt the experience is the same for people reading this off the page. I don’t think I can even finish it as an audio book, but it’s a bummer to hand over more $ to Amazon just to finish what is actually a really compelling and well written book.

Great novel - Terrible narrator

The story is very well written. The David Pittu narration is terrible, his mockery and contempt for women is very disturbing. I wish audible re-record this book with better narrator. After listen to the interview with the author and narrator, it was obvious that David Pittu is very impressed with himself and you feel this throughout his reading this wonderful book.

Beautifully written but…

Franzen is a masterful writer and story teller. This book is no exception. However, part of my couldn’t wait to finish it (and not in a good way). I don’t know how to explain it but while I was never bored by this book it really is not plot driven. It is a character exploration of the Hildebrandt family. Franzen tells what I would call quasi-stories within the chapters of the book, and I will say the backstory of the mother, Marian, is probably the most interesting and engaging. I would say the cons of the cons are the following 1)the length 2)the lack of forward momentum that I like in a story 3) the narrator’s voice when he does female characters (and the brother Perry), I agree with other reviewers that he makes all women sound nasal and annoying.

Overall the book is good, Franzen’s writing is so excellent that I have to give it 4 stars, but I was happy to be finished and move onto something new.

Listened to it at every opportunity

A character driven family novel with interesting characters, tremendous emotional complexity and a lot of humor. In my opinion, Crossroads is as good as anything Jonathan Franzen has written. My only complaint is that I finished it so quickly. I think anyone who enjoyed The Corrections and Freedom will enjoy listening to Crossroads.