63 pages • 2 hours read
Jonathan FranzenA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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In the car with Russ on the way to Theo Crenshaw’s church, Frances explains that she recently caught her son Larry with marijuana and suspects that Perry gave it to him. Silently, Russ reflects on how he cannot understand Perry lately and even feels repulsed by him. Frances invites him over to try Larry’s marijuana with her while Larry is at school, suggesting that they should understand the drug before forbidding their children to use it. Russ agrees, excited for the opportunity to make a romantic move.
Becky meets Tanner in his van, and he tells her that today is not a good time to break up with Laura; an agent is coming to watch the band play at the Crossroads concert, and he cannot risk Laura abandoning the show in an angry outburst. Becky leaves the van crying and walks home in the snow. Only Perry and Judson are there, playing a board game. Finding Becky crying in her room, Perry apologizes for acting superior and says he wants a real relationship with her. Though skeptical at first, Becky eventually believes him. She grows excited at the thought of becoming closer with him and grateful that Crossroads has inspired them both to make changes.
Russ reflects on his first interactions with Rick Ambrose. When Rick joined First Reformed and started leading Crossroads with Russ, Russ liked his fresh and authentic faith. Rick gradually noticed that Russ was falling out of favor with the group and told him so, but Russ refused to address it.
On the Crossroads spring trip to Arizona that year, Russ saw that a certain segment of the group disliked him, but he could not win them over. As the reader already knows, Laura led a coup against him at the next regular Crossroads meeting. During this debacle, Rick pulled Russ and a girl named Sally Perkins into his office. Sally admitted that she was highly uncomfortable in a one-on-one meeting with Russ in his office weeks before. They had been talking about her parents’ divorce, and Russ’ response left Sally disturbed; she interpreted his comments as an implicit admission that he was no longer sexually attracted to his wife.
After sending Sally out of the office, Rick told Russ he made a mistake. Although Russ privately realized he overstepped in his effort to seem relatable like Rick, he stubbornly accused Rick of not sticking up for him. After the argument, Russ left Crossroads and stopped talking to Rick altogether. Irrationally, Russ continues to blame Marion for the whole incident three years later, as if it never would have happened had her weight gain not caused him to lose interest in her.
Back in the present, Russ and Frances arrive at Theo’s church with presents for the church’s children. Frances presents Theo with a gift for Ronnie from her. Theo tries to explain that it’s not a good idea; Ronnie’s mom will be angry and not allow him to come to the church anymore, and Ronnie needs a shelter when she is not sober. Frances refuses to see his point of view, and Russ has to hastily end the interaction.
On the ride home, he explains how she can shift her perspective and approach unfamiliar communities with humility instead of defensiveness. She concedes that he is right, but she also says he should try to make up with Rick, suggesting she will chaperone the spring Crossroads trip if Russ rejoins the group and comes along. In the middle of excitedly contemplating a trip with Frances, he causes a car accident.
Russ calls home and tells Perry he is having car trouble and will not be back in time for the senior minister’s Christmas party. Perry decides he and Judson will go to represent the family, wanting to continue his streak of trying to be a better person. When the two arrive at Dwight Haefle’s house, Perry notices a strong-smelling alcoholic punch, which Dwight identifies as “gløgg.” Throughout the evening, Perry continuously sneaks more and more gløgg.
Once Perry feels buzzed, he begins to chat with a reverend and a rabbi. He poses to them the question he has been mulling over lately: How can a person ever achieve genuine goodness if they are intelligent enough to always recognize the ways in which their goodness will serve their own interests? Each man gives their own answer, and Perry is in the middle of responding to them when Mrs. Haefle comes over and tries to usher him into the sunroom with the rest of the teens.
He responds with irritation that he is in the middle of a conversation and is not annoying the reverend and rabbi. When she continues to insist, he starts raising his voice. She outright accuses him of drinking the gløgg, and Dwight comes over to investigate. Perry finally breaks down into an anguished sob, saying, “This is what I’m talking about […] You’re all saved, but apparently I’m damned” (257). Just then, he sees his mother has walked in the door.
When readers first encounter the story of Russ’s ousting from Crossroads from Clem’s perspective, they might find Clem’s attitude toward Russ harsh. However, when readers encounter the fuller story from Russ’s perspective, Russ somehow seems even less sympathetic than Clem portrayed him. In his previous point-of-view sections, Russ thought of Rick as the enemy who orchestrated his humiliation. In reality, however, Rick tried to defend Russ until he learned that Russ made an inappropriate disclosure to a teen girl. By this point, the reader knows details about Marion that even Russ does not know, and because those details involve situations like rape and mental health conditions, Russ’s attitude toward Marion in his statement to Sally, and in blaming her for the whole incident, comes across as particularly cruel and unseemly, especially for a supposed church leader.
Russ’s feeling of victimization about his ousting from Crossroads is worsened by the fact that Rick’s leadership of Crossroads is demonstrably helping his children. Perry and Becky made inroads at repairing their relationship because of Crossroads. Perry has faced his own addiction and arrogance because of Crossroads. Becky has opened herself up to new levels of vulnerability because of Crossroads. By insisting on Rick’s malevolence, Russ ignores Rick’s good influence on his children.
At the end of Section 9, the reader sees how alienated Perry feels from his family and community. He cannot bring himself to believe in God, yet he is deeply interested in questions of morality and goodness. The fact that he can see the selfishness lying behind even his best actions makes him the most self-aware member of the family. All of the Hildebrandts—with the possible exception of Judson, whom the reader does not get to know well—are largely unaware of each other’s problems and myopically focused on their own. Even Marion, who usually prioritizes her family, is experiencing a spell of rare selfishness as she returns to obsessive thoughts about Bradley.
Perry’s self-awareness makes his alienation even more sad; he can see his own selfishness but cannot figure out how to rid himself of it. His breakdown at the Christmas party has an element of tragedy; faith comes more easily to other people than to him, and while some people might think that makes him feel special, it actually makes him feel desperately sad and alone.
By Jonathan Franzen