Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series

Jonathan Franzen is known for being, well, a little bit of everything: cantankerous and compelling, celebrated and controversial. Known for his vivid character development, his six novels have provoked commentary of all sorts from each end of the spectrum and everywhere in-between. Unsurprisingly, when Franzen — dubbed by TIME as “The Great American Novelist”— releases a new book, people pay attention; his latest novel, Crossroads, is no exception. In Crossroads, it’s December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free from a joyless marriage — unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem’s sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother