Devil in the Details
A Review of Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
by Cheryl Sadowski
592 pp., paperback, $20
October 4, 2022
Picador
ISBN: 9781250858702
Jonathan Franzen’s sixth novel, Crossroads, is a morality tale of exceptional depth that revolves around the soulful struggle of a family, each of whom wrestles with their own private demons. Christian mores hang thickly over the landscape while atheism, Native American spirituality, second-wave feminism, and sexual electricity challenge binary ideas of good and evil, heaven and hell, sin and salvation.
It is 1971 in the Chicago suburb of New Prospect—the town name a fitting metaphor for the novel’s themes. America has entered a decade of political and social upheaval. Russ Hildebrandt, associate pastor of a liberal church, is obsessing over a “foxy” (it is the ’70s) widowed female parishioner while coping with the humiliation of losing the confidence and leadership of the church’s youth group to a younger, hipper pastoral leader.
Russ’s wife Marion—neglected and weighed down both mentally and physically with the demands of raising a family—is haunted by her secret past, though in the end it will endow her with courage and a new resolve. Their oldest son Clem returns home from college after breaking up with his girlfriend, ready to hurt his pacifist father by volunteering to fight to Vietnam, while second oldest Becky, the diva of her high school, becomes involved in the same youth group that rejected her father. Perry, still in middle school, with an IQ of 160, is selling drugs while gradually learning to enjoy them, too.
Each of the Hildebrandts stands at the crossroads of change, toggling between freedom and responsibility while working through what it means to live a moral and authentic life. Some in the family are devoutly Christian, at least in their own minds; others, decidedly not. What makes the novel so engrossing is the way Franzen’s sharp prose reveals the shallow justifications, delusions, and, sometimes, genuine sincerity of each of his characters. None of the family members is particularly likable, but Franzen affords a fascinating window into their lives. Like all of Franzen’s previous novels, especially The Corrections, this new book is both literate and highly engaging as we discover how things turn out for Russ, Marion, Clem, Becky, and Perry.
Franzen, sometimes called an “American Dickens,” staggers the Hildebrandts’ individual stories through a combination of backstory, riveting scenes, and interior drama that unfolds from Advent to Easter. The depth of psychological transformation occurring over such a short period of time needs a writer of Franzen’s skills to make believable. He builds his nearly 600-page epic through novella-length chapters that deliver just as much Russ or Becky or Marion Hildebrandt as we can handle before allowing us to exhale and then turn the page for more. Apparently, there will be more, for the book is billed by publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux as the first in a trilogy that “encompasses all the ‘mythologies’—the political, religious, and intellectual crosscurrents—that have animated and troubled American life in recent decades.”
What makes the novel so engrossing is the way Franzen’s sharp prose reveals the shallow justifications, delusions, and, sometimes, genuine sincerity of each of his characters. None of the family members is particularly likable, but Franzen affords a fascinating window into their lives.
The Christian lexicon and mental gyrations in Crossroads are at times suffocating, but then so are the characters suffocating under the weight of self-created ordeals. But as they begin to make new choices -- some with devastating ramifications -- things really pick up steam. It turns out that Russ Hildebrandt is a devotee not only of Jesus Christ but also the blues, and the significance of the novel’s title (taken from blues master Robert Johnson’s song about his fabled deal with the devil) becomes apparent.
Each of the Hildebrandts is eventually changed. Whether they consider these changes to be the result of God’s will, the devil’s work, or personal ethics is not really the issue; rather, it is that making any choice at all is the necessary response to a crossroads.
Contemporary novels like Crossroads that swim in the murky seas of morality are rare, yet Jonathan Franzen over his career has cultivated readers willing to spend time with an entire cast of characters who struggle for meaning in their lives. His latest novel continues this success, while setting the stage for future narratives in what may prove to be an extraordinary trilogy.
Cheryl Sadowski writes essays, reviews, and short fiction from Northern Virginia, where she works in nonprofit management. Her writing explores the plain weave of everyday life with philosophy, art, literature, and the natural world. Cheryl’s lyrical poem “Tenants” was recently awarded a First Place Grantchester Prize from The Orchards Poetry Journal. Other works have appeared in the Bay to Ocean Journal, The Broadkill Review, EcoTheo, and After the Art.
