![]() ![]() When we first meet Perry, he is stranded between the two options: brilliant but troubled, he has lately resolved to quit doing drugs, be nicer to his sister, and generally become a better person, but he is finding the whole idea of goodness difficult to comprehend.Īt the party-an annual interfaith affair for the religious leaders of New Prospect-he convinces himself, through a brief bargaining session with his better angels, that drinking is not technically a contravention of his resolution, then covertly helps himself to a generous amount of gløgg, the potent Scandinavian drink on offer. That makes him a P.K., or preacher’s kid, a famously fraught identity that some people navigate by striving to be good enough to live up to the accompanying expectations, and others by becoming conspicuously, defiantly bad. The drug dealer is Perry, the fifteen-year-old son of Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of the First Reformed Church of New Prospect, Illinois. ![]() ![]() ![]() This is not the setup to a joke it is the setup to a pivotal scene in “ Crossroads,” Jonathan Franzen’s new novel. A rabbi, a preacher, and a drug dealer walk into a Christmas party. ![]()
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