It's December 1971, and a snowstorm is brewing in the Chicago area. Russ Hildebrandt, a suburban minister, is about to end his unhappy marriage when he discovers that his wife, Marion, has secrets of her own and is also fed up with their marriage. Their eldest son, Clem, comes home from college with a decision that will soon shake Russ. Their only daughter, Becky, the star of their school, is suddenly drawn into the counterculture, and their third child, Perry, a drug dealer who sold drugs to younger kids, is determined to be a better person. Each Hildebrandt is searching for freedom, and the rest of the family is trying to get in the way of each other's.
"Crossroads" is a novel in which Jonathan Franzen shows all the confusion, emotional upsurge and ethical crisis of the early 70s in America using the example of one family. Russ Hildebrandt, the father of the family and the parish priest, who already regrets the past, faces several trials at once: forbidden love, loss of authority, abrupt and cruel alienation of children.
This novel is full of details that convey the spirit of the era and the nature of the doubts that gripped society at the time. But above all, it is about six people, members of one family, who are too close and at the same time too original not to hurt each other in inevitable clashes. This is the pain of children from the weakness of their parents, the pain of parents from responsibility for what is beyond their control in their children. Jonathan Franzen tells a story about human connections and human loneliness, about how close people are capable of tormenting each other not only with restrictions, but also with non-interference. This is a story about a series of crossroads that everyone encounters at one time or another in their lives. No matter how much bitterness there is in human freedom, it always leaves room for hope: “Life is a mess, and that’s wonderful.”
Author: Jonathan Franzen
Translation: Julia Poleshchuk
Year of issue: 2022
Publisher: Corpus
Pages: 656
Cover type: Hardcover
Dimensions: 217x150x34 mm
ISBN: 978-5-17-136266-9