Crossroads

by Jonathan Franzen

When you’re poor, things just happen to you. You feel like you can’t control anything.

she caught a strange flashing glimpse of a desire, buried somewhere inside her, to belong and to believe in something.

In the hush of the emptied campus, he could faintly hear the mightiness of Illinois, the rumble of a freight train, the moan of eighteen-wheelers, coal transported from the south, car parts from the north, fattened livestock and staggering corn yields from the middle, all roads leading to the broad-shouldered city on the lake.

Maybe there’s something in Theo’s experience that leads him to think the way he does, something I can’t immediately see. Instead of just shooting from the hip, I stop and ask myself, ‘Why does he feel differently about this than I do?’ And then I listen to his answer. He and I may still disagree, but at least I’ve acknowledged that a Black man’s experience in this country is profoundly different than mine.”

Tiny treats, an air-conditioned car, a drink by the pool, an after-dinner cigarette, could get a person through her life.