IN THE FIRST PAGES of his new novel, Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen introduces us to Russ Hildebrandt, a man who, soon after, berates himself as a “fatuous, obsolete, repellent clown.” Three years earlier, Russ, an associate minister from a Mennonite background, was expelled from his church youth group—for his uncoolness, he claims. Now, two days before Christmas 1971, he is nursing his wounded pride by lusting after a sexy parishioner. Over the next several hundred pages, naïve and self-deceiving Russ remains insensible to the desires of his wife, Marion, who makes plans to reunite with her old flame and rediscover her former uninhibited self. Both parents, in turn, are oblivious to their four children, as the eldest three begin to fall into disrepair in various historically appropriate ways.
The first book…
