CROSSROADS BY JONATHAN FRANZEN BOOK REVIEW

Franzen’s A Key to all Mythologies trilogy is either going to be The Great American Novel or a US knock off of Middlemarch?

#booktube #bookreview #bookreviewer #bookrecomendations

[Dimanche]

0:05 - that was the smoothest transition I've ever seen

[CourtneyFerriter]

Moby-Dick and Beloved are the two great American novels. Happy to have cleared that up for you. 🙂

[OverlyAverageBen]

The American Dream are the friends we stabbed in the back along the way

[MishelleLexi]

EXCUSE ME DID YOU JUST YEET WHAT IS PROBABLY MY FAVOURITE BOOK

[janethansen]

I thought the crossed arms meant no deal which is my reaction to this book.

[BrandonsBookshelf]

lol! Good Lord this was entertaining. How do you get so much actual review and humor in a 10 min video. Crossroads!! I have not read Middlemarch and not sure if this made me want to read it right away or never at all. As for Franzen, I have only read Corrections and though I did enjoy it, I did not get the hype. I'm either over it or under it and just getting more and more lost.

[barbaravoss]

It is what it is: brilliant at getting inside the minds and hearts of his characters. It's also a time capsule of the 1970s. And it is gripping story telling.

[GemReadsALot]

Great review…Hoping to get round to reading it sooner rather than later 🤞🏻

[TheBarandtheBookcase]

Looks like I need to read Middlemarch ASAP 😎 great review!

[timrizzo]

Great review. Yeah I'd agree with 6/10. Very tightly plotted, but in the end the hackneyed title is informative of what's within. Most characters I found believable (apart from a couple of Russ' confessions which were ludicrous) but the way the plot unfolded reminded me of Jerry Springer, so silly I was shaking my head and muttering "shit show" all throughout.

There were a couple of concepts I really dug into, for example Perry's notion that intelligence is an inverse function of goodness, which is flawed but provided a lens to view many of the subsequent plot points.

That they all ended up at some point of self delusion or other I found disappointing, but then growth isn't required to be a theme. I just felt like despite all the parallels and some deep dives I did enjoy, there just wasn't nearly enough happening under the surface to convince me that I want to see this family in two more novels. Given the hype around Franzen(yep, this is my first of his as well) I expected a heck of a lot more.

[deirdre]

As an American who voraciously reads, I'm not interested in "The Great American Novel" either. The term is simply a rather silly marketing tool used to sell to a perpetually declining (so they say) readership. Or perhaps, more seriously, only a mythical ideal that is forever out of reach and thus can never be realized.

[victoranolu]

I am not watching this until I read the book 😊

[readwithlorikate]

Remember the Blazin Squad version of Crossroads? 😅

[SpringboardThought]

Not read any of his at all, nor Middlemarch. So probably not the best entry point lol

[jeanchampollin]

2:14 I can't hear you over the sound of freedom.

[drawyourbook]

Hahaha, true, we do not care about the great American novel. What is more, not all America cares, only the USA cares…

[NR-]

I'm English and I absolutely do care about the great American novel.

[justinlee]

I enjoyed this book a lot, but I would never consider a book about a white, protestant family to be the Great American Novel. Maybe the Great White American Novel, but not the Great American Novel.