Franzen's nearly 600-page family saga follows the Hildebrandts, a Chicago-suburb pastor's family, through a single fraught stretch of the early 1970s as each member quietly comes undone in their own way. Crossroads made numerous Best of the Year lists, including Barack Obama's. It also drew a real, specific, and fairly biting critique from The New Republic about its length and prose. This review covers both, along with the actual Goodreads numbers behind a genuinely long book.
What the Book Actually Is
Set in 1971, the novel follows associate pastor Russ Hildebrandt and his wife and three of their children as each confronts a personal reckoning -- infidelity, addiction, faith, rebellion -- against the backdrop of the church's youth fellowship group that gives the book its name. It's the first installment of a planned trilogy Franzen calls 'A Key to All Mythologies.'
About Jonathan Franzen and Why He Wrote This
Jonathan Franzen grew up in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves, Missouri, an upbringing he's written about directly in his 2006 memoir The Discomfort Zone, including his own experience in a church youth group. He published his first novel, The Twenty-Seventh City, in 1988, before breaking through commercially and critically with The Corrections in 2001 and Freedom in 2010, both National Book Award and multi-prize contenders that established him as one of the most closely watched American novelists of his generation. Franzen has said the youth group he belonged to as a teenager, which leaned on relationship-building, sensitivity training, and blunt personal confrontation, felt closer to a California commune than to anything conventionally religious, and Crossroads draws directly on that memory for its fictional Crossroads youth fellowship. He's also said in interviews, including with the Chicago Tribune, that he set out to write "a more quietly realistic story" than his earlier, more satirical novels, centered on a single family across one fraught stretch of the early 1970s. He began the book expecting it to be his last; by the time he'd finished its nearly 600 pages, he'd instead started a planned trilogy.
What Critics Actually Said
The novel was named a Best Book of the Year by Barack Obama, Air Mail, Bookforum, The Guardian, Time, and The Washington Post, among others -- an unusually wide, cross-outlet consensus. Reviewers described it as warmer than Franzen's previous work, 'wider in its human sympathies, weightier of image and intellect,' a notable shift in tone for a novelist previously known for a colder authorial distance.
Where Real Reviews Pushed Back
The New Republic's review was direct and specific: it argued that 'being presumed great means editors give you a wide berth,' implying the novel's nearly 600-page length went under-edited because of Franzen's reputation, and stated bluntly that 'underneath all this brilliance the prose is bad in the boring ways prose tends to be bad.' Other reviews echoed a related, gentler point -- the novel builds very slowly, with extensive character detail before the plot gains momentum, though some found that patience rewarded by the end.
The Real Youth-Group Culture Behind the Novel
The book's title comes from Crossroads, the fictional church youth fellowship at the center of the Hildebrandt family's world, set in the fictional Chicago suburb of New Prospect, Illinois. Franzen has traced its roots directly to his own adolescence in a real church youth group in the St. Louis suburbs, ground he'd already covered in nonfiction terms in The Discomfort Zone. That group's culture, built around confrontational honesty exercises, group encounter sessions, and an emphasis on emotional openness over doctrine, gave Franzen the raw material for a fictional 1970s youth-group scene that reviewers have called an unusually specific, lived-in piece of period detail rather than generic religious backdrop.
On Religion as a Framework, Not a Doctrine
Each of the novel's central Hildebrandts, pastor Russ, his wife Marion, and three of their children, relates to religion and its rejection in a distinct way, and critics have described Franzen's overall stance as ecumenical and sympathetically agnostic rather than pushing any single belief. The book treats religion less as a set of claims to be right or wrong about than as a philosophical framework a society leans on to stumble forward despite human failure, without doing too much damage along the way. That approach lets Crossroads move through Christian and broader Western moral philosophy without turning into either an argument for faith or a satire of it.
Where Crossroads Fits Into 'A Key to All Mythologies'
Crossroads is the first installment of a planned trilogy Franzen has titled A Key to All Mythologies, a title borrowed from Middlemarch, where it names the sprawling, never-finished scholarly project of the character Casaubon. Franzen has said the full trilogy is meant to span three generations of the same family and trace the inner life of American culture up through the present day. That frame reshapes how to read this first volume: what looks like a self-contained, nearly 600-page family saga set in 1971 is actually the opening movement of a longer, still-unfinished project, with two more books to come before the larger design is complete.
Key Takeaways
- Crossroads was named a Best Book of the Year by an unusually wide range of outlets, including Barack Obama, The Guardian, Time, and The Washington Post
- Franzen has said the novel's youth-group setting draws directly on his own teenage experience in a real church youth group, ground he first covered in his memoir The Discomfort Zone
- It's the first volume of a planned trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, a title borrowed from the unfinished scholarly project in George Eliot's Middlemarch
- Each Hildebrandt family member relates to religion differently, and critics describe Franzen's overall approach as ecumenical rather than doctrinal or satirical
- The New Republic's specific criticism of the novel's length and prose is real, but coexists with an unusually broad critical and Best-of-Year consensus in the book's favor
Who This Book Is Actually For
Readers who want a dense, character-driven family saga with real patience for a slow build, and who are drawn to Franzen's specific brand of morally complicated, psychologically detailed realism.
Who Should Read Something Else Instead
If The New Republic's specific critique -- indulgent length, uneven prose -- gives you pause, or you want a faster-paced novel, this nearly 600-page slow-burn family saga may test your patience.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Named a Best Book of the Year by Barack Obama, The Guardian, Time, The Washington Post, and multiple other outlets
- Strong 4.05 out of 5 rating across more than 51,000 Goodreads ratings
- Reviewers note a genuine warmth and expanded human sympathy compared to Franzen's earlier, colder novels
- Ambitious, richly detailed family saga that rewards patient, immersive reading
- First installment of a planned trilogy for readers who want to stay with the Hildebrandt family long-term
Cons:
- The New Republic specifically critiqued the novel's length as a product of editorial deference to Franzen's reputation
- The same review bluntly criticized the prose as 'bad in the boring ways prose tends to be bad' in places
- Multiple reviews independently note a slow build, with extensive character detail before momentum picks up
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the book?
Nearly 600 pages -- reviewers specifically flag the length as a point of both ambition and, per some critics, indulgence.
What's the actual Goodreads rating?
4.05 out of 5 from more than 51,000 ratings as of this writing.
Is this part of a series?
Yes -- it's the first book in a planned trilogy Franzen has titled 'A Key to All Mythologies.'
What was the main criticism from reviewers?
The New Republic specifically argued the book's length reflected editorial deference to Franzen's reputation and criticized parts of the prose directly, even while acknowledging the novel's ambition.
Sources & Further Reading
- Goodreads -- Crossroads (aggregate rating, reader reviews)
- The New Republic
- Chicago Tribune -- Jonathan Franzen author interview
- PositiveLifes.com — free inspirational and life-changing PDF books
Final Verdict
Crossroads earned an unusually broad Best of the Year consensus -- from Barack Obama to The Guardian to Time -- for its warmer, more expansive take on the Hildebrandt family's unraveling. The New Republic's specific, pointed criticism about length and prose quality is real and worth knowing, particularly if slow-building, nearly 600-page family sagas test your patience. For readers willing to invest the time, the wide critical consensus suggests it pays off.
Buy Day rating: 7.8/10