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A review by bbboeken
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
5.0
For 2022 I set myself the challenge of reading at least one longer, slower book per month. I started with Franzen because I'd passed up on _The Corrections_ and then _Freedom_, and it's always motivating to start with an author's recent work. I thought I had to tackle this novel piecemeal, planning to read a shorter novel over two days, and sampling _Crossroads_ in between. While that started out fine, I found myself continuously drawn towards the tribulations of the Hildebrandt family, in so much that these past few days I focussed all my reading time on them. I was not disappointed.
There is nothing really *spectacular* about the story in _Crossroads_. The genius of this book lies in the way the plot develops, with its multiple iterations and viewpoints that thoroughly make sense, the evident outcome and the origins of it all. First surprising in adventure and experimentation, but soon the story turns out predestined for the inevitable familiarity of what is about to happen. Therein also lies the further strength of the novel: Franzen steers the Hildebrandts upon the path of determinism or at least cyclicism. History repeats itself, also on a microscale.
Added to the language, the mastery of the vocabulary, the eloquence, is the rhythm of Franzen's writing that flows almost like a stream of consciousness, reiterating in the points of view of the various characters.
If Franzen set out to write the great American novel, he is well underway.
There is nothing really *spectacular* about the story in _Crossroads_. The genius of this book lies in the way the plot develops, with its multiple iterations and viewpoints that thoroughly make sense, the evident outcome and the origins of it all. First surprising in adventure and experimentation, but soon the story turns out predestined for the inevitable familiarity of what is about to happen. Therein also lies the further strength of the novel: Franzen steers the Hildebrandts upon the path of determinism or at least cyclicism. History repeats itself, also on a microscale.
Added to the language, the mastery of the vocabulary, the eloquence, is the rhythm of Franzen's writing that flows almost like a stream of consciousness, reiterating in the points of view of the various characters.
If Franzen set out to write the great American novel, he is well underway.