The history of the modern novel has been perceived as a history of a series of crises. From the perspective of narrative form, however, the French postwar crisis of storytelling is arguably unprecedented in its intensity and scope. It was followed by a revival of storytelling in new, self-conscious forms that acknowledge the human need and desire for stories, but are also fraught with a sense of the ethical complexities created by our entanglement in webs of cultural narratives. If a shift towards embracing our condition as storytelling animals took place, however, by no means did it entail an end to the discourse of crisis. I will conclude by casting one more glance at this development, from the perspective of the crises of our current, postmillennial situation.