Crossroads: Franzen triumphs with intricate and entertaining family portrait

Jonathan Franzen creates a world populated with vivid and intriguing characters in the first book of a trilogy covering the lives of the seemingly ordinary Hildebrandt family

Jonathan Franzen: not a word is wasted in Crossroads, his almost 600-page novel. Picture: Bryan Meade

Fiction

Crossroads

By Jonathan Franzen

Fourth Estate, €13.99

For his sixth novel, Jonathan Franzen returns to his obsession – the outwardly ordinary mid-western family. The Hildebrandts, a family of six, with associate pastor Russ at the helm, live in New Prospect, Illinois – a suburb of Chicago.

As with the Lamberts in the smash hit The Corrections and the Berglunds in the less well-received Freedom, if you scratch the surface of the Hildebrandt family portrait, ...