In his assured second novel, Crux, Gabriel Tallent asserts that friendships are as intricate and significant as any relationship bound by blood or romance ... For most readers, the prose will amount to an immersive language course where fluency is achieved through brute experience ... Tallent might telegraph the novel’s ending, but the way he executes the conclusion is thrilling, propulsive and earned.
Difficult and ferocious ... Pushing through these pages — echoing its characters’ ordeals — requires resolve and stamina, but certain rewards abide ... Crux is huge, ungainly and almost insanely bighearted. It could have used pruning, but so much of its writing is monster-audacious you forgive that.
Many minutely detailed, lingo-heavy episodes of rock climbing, much of which will never become fully intelligible to the reader who lacks background in the sport. Fortunately, it can still be fun to read ... While the adult characters are generally eye-rollingly awful, the kids could also stand to be a bit more lovable ... These reservations aside, Crux pulsates with ambition, intensity, passion for the natural world, and devotion to life’s biggest questions. It’s a young person’s book.
Boisterous ... As in all sports novels, climbing offers the characters a framework for living ... Nonclimbers may not grasp precisely what is going on in these moments, but they will feel the excitement and begin to understand the obsession.
Crux is a fine novel. Its characters are dimensionalized, its narrative solidly framed. Yet too often it left me wanting more, to stand on the precipice 'between the deeply felt danger of committing and the real danger of hesitation' to which its characters aspire
Crux is a book that wanders from majesty to mediocrity, with occasional spills into outright bathos. For many readers, the great sports writing and lovable heroine will make its flaws irrelevant. But anyone who can’t get past B-movie plotting should sit this one out.
His meticulous description of each climb builds excruciating tension, rewarding the reader with vicarious thrills and breathless catharsis. Necessary fiction for climbers, Crux would also appeal to thriller fans and armchair adventurers.
A gorgeous love letter to the power of dreams and friendship. Gabriel Tallent has created an unlikely pair of characters so real that they quickly capture readers’ hearts.
