CROSSROADS
“We all have an innate capacity to recognize true goodness, but we’re also full of sin, and those two parts of us are constantly at war.”
In the epic and brilliant novel Crossroads, a suburban Illinois family is unraveling in spectacular fashion against the backdrop of a suburban church community in 1971. Russ Hildebrandt - minister, husband and father - is fervently pursuing a pretty young widow, as his wife Marion begins a downward spiral of instability and decades old secrets. Their college-aged son is tormented by the morality of the Vietnam War; their popular, self-absorbed daughter has a romantic reckoning of conscience; another son weighs the consequences of his drug dealing; and their youngest child is the unintended witness to his family’s deepening existential crises.
The first of an upcoming trilogy, this book’s plot builds slowly - then blindsides you without warning. Crossroads is a relentless study of the human condition in all of its fragility, ugliness, insecurity and hypocrisy. Each of the characters is consumed with the notion of “goodness” and “badness,” but ultimately finds that moral absolutes are a dangerous thing. The story asks, is human behavior driven by a desire to be good or is there always an ulterior motive? Franzen has an uncanny ability to place us squarely inside his characters’ heads - we may not like what we see, but we can’t look away.
Crossroads features a Swedish Christmas party scene that starts well, but devolves into a disastrous cringe-fest. Although my family is Jewish, as a child I would spend every Christmas Eve at my wonderful Swedish aunt’s house to enjoy her joyous holiday traditions and eat delicious foods exactly like the ones described in this scene of the novel: brag-worthy Swedish meatballs, a potato casserole called Janssons Frestelse, and lots of warm glögg, a spiced red wine. (My cousins and I would also negotiate to amass the biggest collection of marzipan elves!) Here I recreated the holiday feast in Crossroads with the same foods - grateful for this trip down a much-loved memory lane!
