Jonathan Franzen Talks with David Remnick About “Crossroads”

Jonathan Franzen Talks with David Remnick About “Crossroads”

Jonathan Franzen’s sixth novel, “Crossroads,” is set in 1971, and the title is firmly on the nose: the Hildebrand family is at a crossroads itself, just as the America of that moment seemed poised to come apart. In the course of his career, Franzen has evolved away from an early postmodernist sensibility that highlighted “bravura” writing, and “with this book I threw away all the po-mo hijinks and the grand plot elements,” he tells David Remnick. “It’s really only in the course of writing ‘Crossroads’ that I have said to myself, What I am is a novelist of character and psychology. . . . It’s not about formal experimentation and it’s certainly not about changing the world through my social commentary.” Franzen also discusses the complex ethics behind writing a character of another race, and takes issue with the belief of some in the academy (and much of the political right) that leftist sensibilities are stifling free expression; he declined to sign the “Harper’s Letter” last year. Despite political polarization, Franzen says, “It’s a much better time to be an American writer than I would have guessed twenty-five years ago.”

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Naftali Bennett and the New Hard Line in Israeli Politics

Naftali Bennett and the New Hard Line in Israeli Politics

In 2013, David Remnick published a profile of Naftali Bennett.  He wrote that Bennett was something new in Israeli politics, a man who would “build a sturdy electoral bridge between the religious and ...

21 Juni 202113min

Merrick Garland's Impossible Job

Merrick Garland's Impossible Job

Merrick Garland made his legal reputation as a temperate moderate dedicated to keeping politics out of the justice system. Yet in the past few years, he has found himself at the center of two of the m...

17 Juni 202117min

A Rift over Racism Divides the Southern Baptist Convention

A Rift over Racism Divides the Southern Baptist Convention

Next week, the Southern Baptist Convention will hold its annual meeting. It’s the largest Protestant denomination in the country, and, as the group gathers to elect a new president, it is facing a cri...

14 Juni 202115min

Naomi Osaka and the Rights of Professional Athletes

Naomi Osaka and the Rights of Professional Athletes

Last month, Naomi Osaka, the second-ranked women’s tennis player in the world, announced that she would not speak to the press during the French Open. The referee fined her fifteen thousand dollars, a...

11 Juni 202120min

The Early Days of ACT-UP, and Its Lessons for Today’s Activists

The Early Days of ACT-UP, and Its Lessons for Today’s Activists

Sarah Schulman is a novelist and playwright as well as a well-known activist and documentarian. She was an early member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, and, for twenty years, she and the filmm...

7 Juni 202117min

Biden’s Plan to Reshape the American Economy

Biden’s Plan to Reshape the American Economy

A semblance of pre-pandemic life has resumed across the country, but the economic signs are mixed, even after the strong jobs report for May. Supply chains are bottlenecked, unemployment is just under...

4 Juni 202119min

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