Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The novel spans the period from 1971 to 1974 and follows the events in the life of a six-person family (a Christian minister, his wife, and four children) living in a small town near Chicago. The plot is captivating and will hold the readers' interest throughout all 576 pages. However, as it is a serious novel, it also has a lot to say about the so-called human condition.

It is my fifth novel by Jonathan Franzen—I have reviewed the previous four on Goodreads—and the first one in which psychological motives of human behavior are clearly in the forefront, while social matters and politics are in the background. The emphasis is on the moral issues: 'What does it mean to be a good person?' and 'Am I doing everything I can to be a good person?' are the main questions the novel poses. Also, the reader is shown how incompatible the individual moral codes could be, even assuming that all of us are guided by the same wish to be good.

The title refers to the name of a religious youth group (fellowship), of which the minister and two of his children are members. The events in the life of the family are closely intertwined with the group's activities. A lot of emphasis in the novel is on the psychology of religious experience. There is a vivid account of a teenager's drug addiction and its dramatic consequences. I like the format of the novel, where the individual chapters follow the individual family members.

To sum up, Crossroads is a serious yet very readable novel that will leave the reader thinking about the never-ending interplay between human goodness and human weakness.


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