LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

For details regarding specific events please contact the organizers or venues. If you are an organizer or venue and would like to reach out to us please feel free to contact us or submit an event using our submission form. We’d love to hear from you!

Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Jonathan Franzen in Conversation With Maria Semple / Ticketed Event

October 12, 2021 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

$30
Online, N/A, Portland, OR 97207

Jonathan Franzen’s gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), the first novel in his new magnum opus trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies. 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 of a marriage he finds joyless — 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 Perry, who’s been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate. With characteristic humor and complexity, and with even greater warmth, Franzen conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own. A tour de force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, its action largely unfolding on a single winter day, Crossroads is the story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis. Franzen will be joined in conversation by Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette.

This event is presented in partnership with Auntie’s Bookstore (Spokane), The Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle), Roundabout Books (Bend), Third Place Books (Seattle), and Village Books (Bellingham).

Please note: This is a ticketed event. Purchasing a copy of Crossroads ($30) entitles you to attend our virtual event with Franzen and Semple on Tuesday, October 12, at 6pm (PT). After you’ve purchased the book, we will automatically register you for the Zoom event — and will send you a confirmation email two days prior to the event containing a Zoom link to the event and instructions on how to access it.

Buy the Book-Inclusive Event Ticket

Details

Date:
October 12, 2021
Time:
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Cost:
$30
Categories:
,
Tags:
, , , , , , , ,
Source:
https://www.powells.com/events-update

Venue

Online
N/A
Portland, OR 97207

Organizer

Phone:
503-228-4651
Website:
View Organizer Website