This has been selected by our bookclub to discuss in June. I had great difficulty with the only other book I read by this author - The Corrections - but I think that was related to my situation at the time and not the book.
I am curious to give Franzen another try.

I have to say I am very grateful to my book club for suggesting this book.
My only previous experience with a book by this author was traumatic. I had been staying with my mother in the senior residence where my parents were living at the time while my father had brain surgery with the hope of alleviating the pressure - related to his dementia? I spent the difficult week ferrying my disabled mother to and fro the hospital, and then boarded a bus for NYC before returning to my home in Europe. For some reason the bus trip ended up taking longer than the roughly four hours scheduled, and the only book I had with me was The Corrections. I don't remember much other than that it was the very last book I would have wished to be reading on that ride, and as I was very late to the cell and smartphone parade, there was absolutely nothing else for me to read.
I was so leery of Franzen, that another book received as a birthday present a few years later still sits untouched on my shelf.
So when selected by the club, I braced myself and agreed to read this.
Not necessarily an easy read, this was nonetheless a comparative delight. I greatly admire Franzen's prose and turn of phrase, and his characterization was surgically precise. Again I found much to relate to, as I was of the age of the Crossroads participants at the time described. I even belonged briefly to a youth group vaguely similar to Crossroads, so had no difficulty imagining the hugs and guitar strumming, even if my group was not Christian.
Initially I struggled with the overbearing presence of religion and Christianity in the book, but gradually was able to let go and accept the story and the importance of the role of belief for the characters.
It will be interesting to hear what others in the book club have to say.