Behind her frumpy dresses and sagging middle-age body are secret desires and a tragic story that’s never been told. Observing it all from the sideline is Russ’ wife Marion who is going through a bit of a re-evaluation herself. Russ is chasing skirt (it’s in the blurb so no spoiler) in the form of the newly widowed, sexy, flirty Frances Cottrell. Franzen is superb at cringeworthy dialogue and embarrassing situations the Russ-Rick stand-off had me in stitches. The father of the family and leader of the First Reformed Church pastor Russ Hildebrandt is about to be dethroned by Rick Ambrose, the infinitely cooler leader of the church’s youth group, Crossroads. This time, we’re a fly on the wall in the Hildebrandt family, a mid-western family of six, all of whom are facing some sort of identity crisis, hence the title. This is both a blessing, he does it extremely well, but also begs the question: is Franzen a one-trick pony? After his more expansive (geographically and thematically) and, in my opinion, less successful Purity, Crossroads feels reassuringly familiar. In Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen we’re back in familiar Franzen-territory: the dissection of an all American family.
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