Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

Jonathan Franzen’s engrossing new novel takes us to New Prospect, Illinois. Here, behind a veneer of small “c” conservative respectability, we find a melting pot of American insecurities. Head of the Hildebrandt family is Russ, an associate pastor at the First Reformed church, but as Christmas approaches, this community leader is in danger of straying from his God and his marriage. His wife, Marion, questions her own future as she deals with a traumatic past, while their children are deviating from the flock, falling into sex, drugs and the Vietnam war. One by one, Franzen dissects each family member’s anxieties and their retreat into temptation.