Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

18 reviews

milkfran's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A snapshot in time of the Hildebrandt family over one Christmas in Illinois in the 1970’s but interwoven with each character’s point of view and their thoughts, feelings, and recollections of the past. 
It’s hard to love any of the characters but it’s hard to hate them either: Franzen’s gift is to make them human as they wrestle with small dilemas that seem like big ones (“should I have an affair with a woman from church?”) and big dilemas that seem like small ones (“am I a coward for accepting a deferment for the draft?”). 

Really excited for the next ones if it’s going to be a trilogy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Rape

a_serpent_with_corners's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Liked how well this showed that strongly held principles/changes of heart can be simultanously 'real' and driven by self-interest. Thinking especially of

Spoiler

Becky's conversion experience and Clem's decision to enlist

.

The mixture of love, duty, and resentment that characterises the family relationships was also well-drawn.

The parts about Marion were the biggest mixed bag for me. She gets one of the most blistering exchanges of dialogue in the novel, but the parts dealing with her earlier life from her own perspective didn't quite ring true for me - they seemed a bit sensational. Not so much in the specifics of what happened but more in

Spoiler

the way mental illness was expressed in the narration

.

It goes very quickly - I finished it in four days, despite them being quite busy. Everything I read about this compared it to The Corrections and most agreed that that was even better, so I will need to seek it out sometime.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Abortion, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

lily_kruse's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Addiction, Drug use, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Vomit, Pregnancy, Rape, Racism, Abortion, and Blood

lubepizza's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

God I hate this family so much but boy howdy does this sucker know how to write.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Abortion, Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Racism

Minor: War and Adult/minor relationship

hannakutlu's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Infidelity, Drug use, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Pregnancy

drrock's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Drug abuse, and Abortion

jessidbee's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abortion, Classism, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape

alimalina's review against another edition

reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Truly, the god doesn't exist in the vast lands of colonised lands of the United States and this novel is proof of that. 
It is setup from the very beginning that this much like the Hildebrandslied, these people are only family in name, lacking the actual bonds that would make them recogniseble to one another. Everyone is too much up in their heads, busy fighting the God (their conscience if anything really) to even see people they live with.
The story of a Midwest family that hate each other is such a cliche but the text is aware of itself enough to be interesting. All of the characters are tragic,  set up to lose the thing they coveted the most, destined to never escape the fate living in godless land presented them with. Your agency, mind and principles will be lost and forgotten, only the mundane and boringly inevitable to stay. 
The writing is solid, the idea is executed brilliantly, the points of view of characters play with and against each other in an engaging way. 
I am afraid that the novel still slightly overstays it's welcome. 
Two questions have slightly bothered since finishing it: a) was this just a long setup to the trilogy and

Spoiler

b) why cocaine of all things really

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Abortion

robgottfried's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abortion, Suicide, and Sexual violence

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 Crossroads was one of the books already on my TBR. It’s the story of a dysfunctional family, set in the 1970s but with plenty of flashbacks. Its size gives it an almost epic feel and it’s been touted as a future American classic. I loved the multiple perspectives, the vivid multi-layered, flawed and imperfect characters and I liked the dive into topics like mental health, infidelity, drug abuse, Vietnam, counter-culture and more. But, and this is a big but for me, this book had a very heavy Christian theme running throughout. Russ, the family’s father, was a pastor which wouldn’t have put me off. However, most of the characters, at one time or another, considered their circumstances and dilemmas at length through a Christian lens. For me it came across as too much, felt dogmatic and preachy, and was enough to push this into the “not for me” category. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abortion