Crossroads

Never before has Jonathan Franzen's talent for fusing a wide range of societal vision with character nuance and vividness been more strikingly shown than in Crossroads.

On December 23, 1971, Chicago is expected to see severe weather. Associate pastor of a liberal suburban church Russ Hildebrandt is about to leave a marriage he finds miserable, unless his wife Marion—who leads a secretive life of her own—beats him to it. Clem, their oldest kid, is returning from college with a burning sense of moral absolutism after doing something that would break his father. While their intelligent younger brother Perry, who has been selling drugs to seventh students, has made a vow to improve himself, Clem's sister Becky, who was formerly the social queen of her high school class, has abruptly swerved into the counterculture. Every Hildebrandt pursues a freedom that every other one tries to impede.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen is praised for his sharp-eyed observations of modern America and his unforgettable colorful characters. Franzen now travels back in time to examine the histories of two generations in Crossroads. His universe has a strong resonance with our own, and he creates it with his usual comedy, depth, and humanity.

Crossroads is a masterful work of interconnected viewpoints and long-lasting suspense that tells the narrative of a Midwestern family going through a critical moral dilemma, with much of the action taking place on a single winter day. Never before has Jonathan Franzen's talent for balancing the grand picture with the little details been so strikingly clear.