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Class
A satirical novel about a mother whose life spirals out of control when she's forced to rethink her bleeding heart liberal ideals
For idealistic forty-something Karen Kessler, it isn't enough that she works full-time in the non-profit sector, aiding an organization that helps hungry children from disadvantaged homes. She's also determined to live her personal life in accordance with her ideals. This means sending her daughter, Ruby, to an integrated public school in their Brooklyn neighborhood.
But when a troubled student from a nearby housing project begins bullying children in Ruby's class, the distant social and economic issues Karen has always claimed to care about so passionately feel uncomfortably close to home. As the situation at school escalates, Karen can't help but wonder whether her do-gooder husband takes himself and his causes more seriously than her work and Ruby's wellbeing.
A daring, discussable satire about gentrification and liberal hypocrisy, and a candid take on rich and poor, white and black, CLASS is also a smartly written story that reveals how life as we live it--not as we like to imagine it--often unfolds in gray areas.
For idealistic forty-something Karen Kessler, it isn't enough that she works full-time in the non-profit sector, aiding an organization that helps hungry children from disadvantaged homes. She's also determined to live her personal life in accordance with her ideals. This means sending her daughter, Ruby, to an integrated public school in their Brooklyn neighborhood.
But when a troubled student from a nearby housing project begins bullying children in Ruby's class, the distant social and economic issues Karen has always claimed to care about so passionately feel uncomfortably close to home. As the situation at school escalates, Karen can't help but wonder whether her do-gooder husband takes himself and his causes more seriously than her work and Ruby's wellbeing.
A daring, discussable satire about gentrification and liberal hypocrisy, and a candid take on rich and poor, white and black, CLASS is also a smartly written story that reveals how life as we live it--not as we like to imagine it--often unfolds in gray areas.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 10, 2017
83 people are currently reading
2279 people want to read
About the author
Lucinda Rosenfeld
8 books116 followersLucinda Rosenfeld is the author of five novels, including CLASS, a satire about parenting, public school, and the liberal bubble.
Please see: @authorlucindarosenfeld on Facebook. Purchase here: http://amzn.to/2cNULku
Please see: @authorlucindarosenfeld on Facebook. Purchase here: http://amzn.to/2cNULku
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews
July 15, 2018
This book has so much potential in my opinion...
This satire is a serious topic—an enormous subject
—taking humongous guts to even attempt to write.
I admit getting ‘sucked into the drama’. For a book a little too long - it held my attention completely. I beat the ‘snatch-away’ from my kindle ( library overdrive within hours before this book was due).
This novel isn’t perfect .., but if you’ve ever sent your kids to school, public or private....worked in nonprofit and/or participated in humanitarian fundraising projects -
eaten food ...( shop at Whole Foods - eat organic) ...
...have judged a parent feeding their obese child a donut...
...are married...
...have children...
...are educated ..
...have judged and evaluated others..
...questioned diversity vs.
quality education in public schools ...as to which might be more important for children ...
This is a worthy book to read.
The storytelling itself is often laughable- sometimes tiring -
but...I think it’s a terrific pick for a book group discussion — especially parents raising young kids.... dealing with their school/ parent community every day.
As for the lead Character- Karen Kipple .... self named “neurotic elitist”.....
watching her break down didn’t exactly give me pleasure...but it humanized her for me.
The supporting characters are well defined- we know the ‘types’.
Kudos to author Lucinda Rosenfeld..
Wow... can’t imagine how she slept at night while writing and thinking about this topic as often as she must have!
This satire is a serious topic—an enormous subject
—taking humongous guts to even attempt to write.
I admit getting ‘sucked into the drama’. For a book a little too long - it held my attention completely. I beat the ‘snatch-away’ from my kindle ( library overdrive within hours before this book was due).
This novel isn’t perfect .., but if you’ve ever sent your kids to school, public or private....worked in nonprofit and/or participated in humanitarian fundraising projects -
eaten food ...( shop at Whole Foods - eat organic) ...
...have judged a parent feeding their obese child a donut...
...are married...
...have children...
...are educated ..
...have judged and evaluated others..
...questioned diversity vs.
quality education in public schools ...as to which might be more important for children ...
This is a worthy book to read.
The storytelling itself is often laughable- sometimes tiring -
but...I think it’s a terrific pick for a book group discussion — especially parents raising young kids.... dealing with their school/ parent community every day.
As for the lead Character- Karen Kipple .... self named “neurotic elitist”.....
watching her break down didn’t exactly give me pleasure...but it humanized her for me.
The supporting characters are well defined- we know the ‘types’.
Kudos to author Lucinda Rosenfeld..
Wow... can’t imagine how she slept at night while writing and thinking about this topic as often as she must have!
November 16, 2022
4 "hilarious, brave and thought-provoking" stars !!
The Pleasant Surprise Award of 2018
Once in the shower, the simple joy of hot water streaming down her scalp and back soothed and distracted her. But when she emerged from the downpour, her dissatisfaction both with herself and the world returned. For Karen, negativity was like a wisteria vine that, if left to its own devices, would creep into every last crevice of her conscience and wind itself around every last limb until she felt strangled by her own discontent and desperate to escape."
O Karen Kipple, how I wanted to both hug and bitchslap you !
Karen Kipple is solidly middle class with a social conscience and wants to make the world a better place but she is wracked with guilt, grief, loneliness and not a whole lot of insight into the more unsavory parts of her character. She is in her mid-forties and she begins to unravel like a spool of thread and excuse her abysmal antics as both a victim and a do-gooder. She fails to gently challenge her own internal racism, misogyny and classism and behaves in outrageous, unethical and hurtful ways to her family and community. She is caught up in bleeding heart liberalism and yet constantly looks at what she doesn't have while judging harshly those with more privilege and those with less.
This is not a heavy book but more a social satire that is so hilariously funny and yet so very anxiety provoking as you see we all have some Karen Kipple inside of us !!
A terrific read that will have you in stitches as well as help with one's own hypocricies and personal politics !!
The Pleasant Surprise Award of 2018
Once in the shower, the simple joy of hot water streaming down her scalp and back soothed and distracted her. But when she emerged from the downpour, her dissatisfaction both with herself and the world returned. For Karen, negativity was like a wisteria vine that, if left to its own devices, would creep into every last crevice of her conscience and wind itself around every last limb until she felt strangled by her own discontent and desperate to escape."
O Karen Kipple, how I wanted to both hug and bitchslap you !
Karen Kipple is solidly middle class with a social conscience and wants to make the world a better place but she is wracked with guilt, grief, loneliness and not a whole lot of insight into the more unsavory parts of her character. She is in her mid-forties and she begins to unravel like a spool of thread and excuse her abysmal antics as both a victim and a do-gooder. She fails to gently challenge her own internal racism, misogyny and classism and behaves in outrageous, unethical and hurtful ways to her family and community. She is caught up in bleeding heart liberalism and yet constantly looks at what she doesn't have while judging harshly those with more privilege and those with less.
This is not a heavy book but more a social satire that is so hilariously funny and yet so very anxiety provoking as you see we all have some Karen Kipple inside of us !!
A terrific read that will have you in stitches as well as help with one's own hypocricies and personal politics !!
February 10, 2017
The themes would be very interesting to explore in a book group comprised of the type of people it is showcasing, but as a whole, it fell flat. I think Rosenfeld meant well, but her protagonist was so whiny and wishy-washy that her sense of entitlement and self-righteousness made her the worst character in the book, even more than the really terrible people. If Rosenfeld was trying to skewer this particular type of behavior, I don't think she succeeded. I think that a lot of readers will read this with the kind of clueless self-righteousness that it was meant to highlight.
February 6, 2017
I have no earthly right to weigh in on a satirical novel about child rearing in an urban liberal elite bubble. I don’t have children. I don’t live in Brooklyn. I may be liberal by some measurements, and maybe even elite, depending on what definition of the term we are applying (see the recent Economist article calling out the word’s overuse). And if I live in a bubble, it’s a pretty lousy bubble. I’ve had to sit through presentations on how Donald Trump will make a good president because he doesn’t have ties to Saudi Arabia (he does); my social media timelines are cluttered with posts from self-described ultra-conservatives and mainstream media articles bashing my profession and lauding private interests destroying public education.
But I know satire. And Lucinda Rosenfeld serves it up in steaming heaps of scorn.
Karen Kipple is a forty-something mother of eight-year-old Ruby and married to a taciturn yet pleasant enough man. The two of them work in nonprofits, though they’ve seen better days, and while they aren’t going away to starve, they aren’t quite as wealthy as Kipple privately wishes. Their daughter Ruby is in a public school, ostensibly because Karen and her husband wish Ruby to have a diverse educational surrounding, but she can’t quite shake her fears that her daughter is getting a substandard education, or that her fears of this substandard education are fueled by racial prejudice. Kipple sends passive aggressive emails to mothers and faculty, negotiates her daughter’s friendship dramas and breakups, and comes to a tipping point when Jayyden, a black boy from a troubled family, tells Ruby he wants to “f—k with her” and later stabs Ruby’s former BFF after an altercation over an elementary school assignment. Kipple finally resorts to fraud in order to enroll her daughter at a different, supposedly better (whiter) public school, with all the attendant guilt and soul-searching crushing her progressive soul. She soon finds herself sucked into PTA duties, where she becomes an embezzler. On the side, she manages to have an affair with a hedge fund manager she went to college with, and as the narrative speeds towards a conclusion miles away from tidy and definitive, she constantly wavers between anxieties and bumbling efforts to recast her actions as noble and sacrificial.
I lost count of how many times I guffawed out loud when watching this woman stumble through infidelities and thieveries, clumsy backhands towards fellow mommies about their bratty children and her own husband’s maddening habits. Where Rosenfeld plants the satirical knife best, I think, is her characterization of Karen as liberal guilt personified. She looks askance at one mother, “insisting that their children wear sunscreen 365 days a year and abstain from all foods containing added sugar. Was it any wonder that, according to Rudy, Maeve hoarded Tootsie Rolls under her bed?” Only right after that, she second-guesses her reaction: “(Was) Karen any less neurotic or uptight than Lauren about sun protection and sucrose?”
Or then there’s the scene where Karen speaks to another mother casually, and then not-so-casually:
Or the scene where Karen gets a look at one of her daughter’s peer’s attempts at a piece of creative writing:
The whole “Karen experienced a negative reaction” and “Or maybe it was just leftist hypocrisy on her part” could be a trope specifically designed for this book. But it works. Karen gets skewered, along with a lot of do-gooders who write and speak one way in their bubbles and on social media, and furtively act another in real life. I don’t think we’re supposed to hate such people, particularly considering likely readers of this novel are part of the herd ourselves. But self-reflection has always been one of the nobler goals of satire, and here we have it, dished out with equal parts humor and feeling.
But I know satire. And Lucinda Rosenfeld serves it up in steaming heaps of scorn.
Karen Kipple is a forty-something mother of eight-year-old Ruby and married to a taciturn yet pleasant enough man. The two of them work in nonprofits, though they’ve seen better days, and while they aren’t going away to starve, they aren’t quite as wealthy as Kipple privately wishes. Their daughter Ruby is in a public school, ostensibly because Karen and her husband wish Ruby to have a diverse educational surrounding, but she can’t quite shake her fears that her daughter is getting a substandard education, or that her fears of this substandard education are fueled by racial prejudice. Kipple sends passive aggressive emails to mothers and faculty, negotiates her daughter’s friendship dramas and breakups, and comes to a tipping point when Jayyden, a black boy from a troubled family, tells Ruby he wants to “f—k with her” and later stabs Ruby’s former BFF after an altercation over an elementary school assignment. Kipple finally resorts to fraud in order to enroll her daughter at a different, supposedly better (whiter) public school, with all the attendant guilt and soul-searching crushing her progressive soul. She soon finds herself sucked into PTA duties, where she becomes an embezzler. On the side, she manages to have an affair with a hedge fund manager she went to college with, and as the narrative speeds towards a conclusion miles away from tidy and definitive, she constantly wavers between anxieties and bumbling efforts to recast her actions as noble and sacrificial.
I lost count of how many times I guffawed out loud when watching this woman stumble through infidelities and thieveries, clumsy backhands towards fellow mommies about their bratty children and her own husband’s maddening habits. Where Rosenfeld plants the satirical knife best, I think, is her characterization of Karen as liberal guilt personified. She looks askance at one mother, “insisting that their children wear sunscreen 365 days a year and abstain from all foods containing added sugar. Was it any wonder that, according to Rudy, Maeve hoarded Tootsie Rolls under her bed?” Only right after that, she second-guesses her reaction: “(Was) Karen any less neurotic or uptight than Lauren about sun protection and sucrose?”
Or then there’s the scene where Karen speaks to another mother casually, and then not-so-casually:
“We’re hanging in there.” Leslie laughed and sighed. “You know, the usual impossible juggling act.”
Was the comment an oblique dig at Karen for having only one child and therefore having it easy while Leslie and her wife toiled away at raising two? Or was Karen projecting?”
Or the scene where Karen gets a look at one of her daughter’s peer’s attempts at a piece of creative writing:
“The story was only one page long and featured poor grammar and spelling. But in its own way, it was well paced and kept the reader wanting to know more. Or maybe it was just that Karen could never hear enough about how the other half lived.”
The whole “Karen experienced a negative reaction” and “Or maybe it was just leftist hypocrisy on her part” could be a trope specifically designed for this book. But it works. Karen gets skewered, along with a lot of do-gooders who write and speak one way in their bubbles and on social media, and furtively act another in real life. I don’t think we’re supposed to hate such people, particularly considering likely readers of this novel are part of the herd ourselves. But self-reflection has always been one of the nobler goals of satire, and here we have it, dished out with equal parts humor and feeling.
February 2, 2017
This book is much like Modern Lovers except the kids are younger. Both are set in Brooklyn and focus on the urban liberal elite & modern parenting. In Class there is also food politics, pour-over coffees, and liberal guilt. It satirizes the agonies that liberal parents put themselves through over school choice & the preoccupation that comes with constantly striving to be forward thinking & open-minded. Given the current political situation the US finds itself in and the resentment that "real Americans" have for "coastal elites" I couldn't finish this fast enough. Satire is the last thing I want to be reading right now.
February 14, 2017
Hell hath no fury like dissatisfied, liberal PTA moms!
Wow: this was an excellent read.
I haven't read a social satire that hits the nail on the head of social politics quite like "Class" does -- and it was a great ride on every page -- a juicy character study and a sort of simultaneous excoriation of political hypocrisy.
Our protagonist, Karen Kipple, is a tightly-wound ball of nerves. She clings SO tightly to her progressive liberal beliefs, doing her best not just to talk the talk, but walk the walk of her diversity-loving, social justice spouting politics.
She works as a development director for a non-profit food charity that reaches out to inner-city kids and families. She sends her child to an under-performing elementary school, chiefly because of its racial diversity, believing that allowing her white daughter the opportunity to attend school with minority children with mixed socioeconomic backgrounds trumps other key metrics -- like test scores and the presence of decent school libraries. She lets her husband, who once worked as a lawyer for many years, quit his job to work without pay on a website that helps low-income people find affordable housing. She buys over-priced, locally produced organic food. She even feels bad for wishing winter to be over because she doesn't want to say anything bad (in her head!) against the idea of climate change....
And she's totally proud of it all.....
Until reality clashes with her heartfelt ideals at her child's school, and her carefully crafted sense of right and wrong begins to melt and fade. She sees the impoverished children who live in homeless shelters wearing designer clothes. She and other parents become more dismayed as a black child in her kid's classroom begins inciting violence against other kids. She's torn about what to do -- she sympathizes with the troubled child's home life, which is horrible. But her worries for her child's safety mount as weeks go by and more reports of this kid's disturbing behavior come to light. She notices the number of white kids in her daughters class sink lower and lower into the single digits...
Temptation lurks and eventually Karen is faced with choices that fly directly in the face of her dearly held beliefs about the world and society. She takes a lot of pride in her care and concern for the disadvantaged in the world, and Rosenfeld's careful drawing of the character makes us see why Karen has found her identity in identity politics.
Eventually, circumstances come together --- in a PTA volunteer group, in her personal life and with her daughter -- in such ways that put Karen on the brink of blowing apart her entire world and worldview.
This book is important because it paints such a clear picture not only of white guilt, but also of progressive politics, leaving readers to decide the difference among the black, white and gray areas of life.
If you have children -- or if you've been associated with public schools at all this century -- this book is a must-read for 2017.
Wow: this was an excellent read.
I haven't read a social satire that hits the nail on the head of social politics quite like "Class" does -- and it was a great ride on every page -- a juicy character study and a sort of simultaneous excoriation of political hypocrisy.
Our protagonist, Karen Kipple, is a tightly-wound ball of nerves. She clings SO tightly to her progressive liberal beliefs, doing her best not just to talk the talk, but walk the walk of her diversity-loving, social justice spouting politics.
She works as a development director for a non-profit food charity that reaches out to inner-city kids and families. She sends her child to an under-performing elementary school, chiefly because of its racial diversity, believing that allowing her white daughter the opportunity to attend school with minority children with mixed socioeconomic backgrounds trumps other key metrics -- like test scores and the presence of decent school libraries. She lets her husband, who once worked as a lawyer for many years, quit his job to work without pay on a website that helps low-income people find affordable housing. She buys over-priced, locally produced organic food. She even feels bad for wishing winter to be over because she doesn't want to say anything bad (in her head!) against the idea of climate change....
And she's totally proud of it all.....
Until reality clashes with her heartfelt ideals at her child's school, and her carefully crafted sense of right and wrong begins to melt and fade. She sees the impoverished children who live in homeless shelters wearing designer clothes. She and other parents become more dismayed as a black child in her kid's classroom begins inciting violence against other kids. She's torn about what to do -- she sympathizes with the troubled child's home life, which is horrible. But her worries for her child's safety mount as weeks go by and more reports of this kid's disturbing behavior come to light. She notices the number of white kids in her daughters class sink lower and lower into the single digits...
Temptation lurks and eventually Karen is faced with choices that fly directly in the face of her dearly held beliefs about the world and society. She takes a lot of pride in her care and concern for the disadvantaged in the world, and Rosenfeld's careful drawing of the character makes us see why Karen has found her identity in identity politics.
Eventually, circumstances come together --- in a PTA volunteer group, in her personal life and with her daughter -- in such ways that put Karen on the brink of blowing apart her entire world and worldview.
This book is important because it paints such a clear picture not only of white guilt, but also of progressive politics, leaving readers to decide the difference among the black, white and gray areas of life.
If you have children -- or if you've been associated with public schools at all this century -- this book is a must-read for 2017.
February 18, 2017
Lucinda Rosenfeld's CLASS features New York, Karen Kipple as she struggles to balance the demands of motherhood and career, always convinced that she was shortchanging one or the other. A world of contradictions.
Married for ten years and for the last five Karen had been the director of development for a small non-profit devoted to tackling childhood hunger in the US. For the past two years, she had been trying to write an op-ed which she hoped one day to publish in a major newspaper, about the relationship between nutrition and school readiness.
Matt, her husband is also a career activist in the nonprofit sector and she is always worried about Ruby, her eight-year-old daughter’s education. She encourages her former lawyer husband to quit his job and work with low-income people to assist their housing needs.
Karen had enrolled her daughter at Betts, aware that it lacked the reputation for academic excellence of other schools nearby, but Ruby would be exposed to children who were less privileged than herself. Even though the white population of the school hovered around 25%. Being in the minority in what she had chosen. However, was he sacrificing her education? Diversity or inferior education?
She had always aspired to a life of making a difference and helping those less fortunate than herself. She tried to live in accordance with the politics and principals, which of course included the notion that public education was a force for good and that without racially and economically integrated school, an equal opportunity couldn’t exist.
Ruby was smart and a voracious reading and life should be good. Karen, an advocate for non-food additives and chemicals as well as diversity. She has a nice condo, hubby, and daughter, Karen’s life seemed to be good in New York; however, she is unhappy.
“Karen’s complex and contradictory relationship to eating had also grown more in the last few years, along with weight, teeth, and marriage—somehow become a dividing line between the social classes with the Earth Day — esque ideals of the 1960s having acquired snob appeal, and the well-off and well-educated increasingly buying “natural” and “fresh” and casting aspersions on those who didn’t.”
Then when a classmate of Ruby’s transfers out of Betts to a more privileged school of white students, all of Karen’s earlier thoughts and commitments, quickly vanished. Her husband wants a divorce because she enrolled Ruby in a new school without telling him.
Following the lead, she moves Ruby and then begins an affair with a rich guy, Clay, among other things. More lies. Her emotions are all over the board. Karen is torn between social classes, seeing the poor living in shelters and the rich and their superficial ways. Hypocrisy. Guilt.
She was capable of paying hundreds of dollars for an espresso machine from Italy, Karen had a deeply ingrained cheap streak as well, which caused her to do things like go to the library and photocopy the crossword puzzle from the Sunday paper rather than pay for a subscription.
Rosenfeld kicks butt and puts it all out there. With keen insights, raw honesty, a brutal portrayal ---the truth of our unequal society in urban America. With humor and highly-charged topics, the author hits the bull's eye, with CLASS.
I especially enjoyed the wide range of topics from privilege, class, identity, entitlement, education, politics, domestic, parenting, marriage, social economics, philanthropy—to ethical dilemmas, the author does not miss a beat in this delightful satire.
A tale of one woman’s struggle between the madness of liberal and reality. The lesson liberals need to learn is that despite their arrogance, they do not have the power to alter reality. From liberals to progressive—is equality among human race the exception, and inequality the norm?
Much to like here whether you are a modern-day urban parent, grandparent, or single. Smart, witty, engaging, absorbing, and thought-provoking! The hardcover was stunning with a perfect fitting cover. An ideal choice for book clubs and further discussions.
A special thank you to Little Brown & Co., Goodreads Giveaway, and NetGalley for a complimentary reading copy, in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
Married for ten years and for the last five Karen had been the director of development for a small non-profit devoted to tackling childhood hunger in the US. For the past two years, she had been trying to write an op-ed which she hoped one day to publish in a major newspaper, about the relationship between nutrition and school readiness.
Matt, her husband is also a career activist in the nonprofit sector and she is always worried about Ruby, her eight-year-old daughter’s education. She encourages her former lawyer husband to quit his job and work with low-income people to assist their housing needs.
Karen had enrolled her daughter at Betts, aware that it lacked the reputation for academic excellence of other schools nearby, but Ruby would be exposed to children who were less privileged than herself. Even though the white population of the school hovered around 25%. Being in the minority in what she had chosen. However, was he sacrificing her education? Diversity or inferior education?
She had always aspired to a life of making a difference and helping those less fortunate than herself. She tried to live in accordance with the politics and principals, which of course included the notion that public education was a force for good and that without racially and economically integrated school, an equal opportunity couldn’t exist.
Ruby was smart and a voracious reading and life should be good. Karen, an advocate for non-food additives and chemicals as well as diversity. She has a nice condo, hubby, and daughter, Karen’s life seemed to be good in New York; however, she is unhappy.
“Karen’s complex and contradictory relationship to eating had also grown more in the last few years, along with weight, teeth, and marriage—somehow become a dividing line between the social classes with the Earth Day — esque ideals of the 1960s having acquired snob appeal, and the well-off and well-educated increasingly buying “natural” and “fresh” and casting aspersions on those who didn’t.”
Then when a classmate of Ruby’s transfers out of Betts to a more privileged school of white students, all of Karen’s earlier thoughts and commitments, quickly vanished. Her husband wants a divorce because she enrolled Ruby in a new school without telling him.
Following the lead, she moves Ruby and then begins an affair with a rich guy, Clay, among other things. More lies. Her emotions are all over the board. Karen is torn between social classes, seeing the poor living in shelters and the rich and their superficial ways. Hypocrisy. Guilt.
She was capable of paying hundreds of dollars for an espresso machine from Italy, Karen had a deeply ingrained cheap streak as well, which caused her to do things like go to the library and photocopy the crossword puzzle from the Sunday paper rather than pay for a subscription.
Rosenfeld kicks butt and puts it all out there. With keen insights, raw honesty, a brutal portrayal ---the truth of our unequal society in urban America. With humor and highly-charged topics, the author hits the bull's eye, with CLASS.
I especially enjoyed the wide range of topics from privilege, class, identity, entitlement, education, politics, domestic, parenting, marriage, social economics, philanthropy—to ethical dilemmas, the author does not miss a beat in this delightful satire.
A tale of one woman’s struggle between the madness of liberal and reality. The lesson liberals need to learn is that despite their arrogance, they do not have the power to alter reality. From liberals to progressive—is equality among human race the exception, and inequality the norm?
Much to like here whether you are a modern-day urban parent, grandparent, or single. Smart, witty, engaging, absorbing, and thought-provoking! The hardcover was stunning with a perfect fitting cover. An ideal choice for book clubs and further discussions.
A special thank you to Little Brown & Co., Goodreads Giveaway, and NetGalley for a complimentary reading copy, in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
June 27, 2017
Allegedly satirical look at class distinctions among the hipsters. Not satirical enough, the satire fell flat for me and this just read like another story of a dissatisfied housewife with idealistic moral views. No new ground covered here and the main character needs slapped, and hard. For me it comes off as really unbelievable fiction, not satire. PTA has almost a million dollars in the bank and it gives a total stranger access to those funds? No way to both. Mailing large amounts of cash via the US Mail? No. Lie after lie after lie, whine after whine after whine. Just shut up already.
February 4, 2017
I need to stop reading books labeled as "satire," because I never think there are as funny as they are supposed to be.
December 7, 2016
This is an absolutely brilliant book! I finished Class a week ago, but I am still digesting its message and re-reading the pages of text I highlighted. So many passages resonated with me, both as a public school teacher and as a parent of elementary-aged children. Our hero, Karen, is generally unlikable, but I think many of her modern-mother conundrums are so relatable. Who among us hasn’t gone to war with our children in a battle against highly-processed food? In one memorable scene Karen, who works for the non-profit Hungry Kids, refuses to buy her daughter an Italian ice because of a deep-rooted fear of the possible "chemical compounds that [are] entering her daughter's body via the neon-colored, artificially flavored, no doubt corn-syrup-enhanced" ice. Other scenes that perfectly capture modern food politics include Karen enjoying $5.00 slow-pour coffee at the local non-corporate coffee house, and Karen encountering a woman in “high-tech running gear” carrying a box of CSA root-vegetables “with scrotal-like hairs growing off them.” At the coffee house, Karen puts her Hungry Kids fundraising aside to indulge in her secret online-shopping addiction, while recognizing that her many GapKids purchases never quite “live up to her expectations.”
While so much of the book is focused on the consumption of food (mostly artisanal “food that [has] been sitting around for a long time”) and goods (that “prize natural materials and a muted palette”), the most important part of the book is Karen’s disappointment “that the quality of a child’s education should be predicated on how much money his or her parents made.” Karen’s ardent fight against an encroaching charter school in her neighborhood is admirable. However, watching her many regrettable choices makes for some uncomfortable and page-turning reading. I highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoy reading satirical novels. The writing is excellent and offers the reader thought-provoking material along with a good laugh (maybe even at ourselves ;-).
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the preview copy!
While so much of the book is focused on the consumption of food (mostly artisanal “food that [has] been sitting around for a long time”) and goods (that “prize natural materials and a muted palette”), the most important part of the book is Karen’s disappointment “that the quality of a child’s education should be predicated on how much money his or her parents made.” Karen’s ardent fight against an encroaching charter school in her neighborhood is admirable. However, watching her many regrettable choices makes for some uncomfortable and page-turning reading. I highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoy reading satirical novels. The writing is excellent and offers the reader thought-provoking material along with a good laugh (maybe even at ourselves ;-).
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the preview copy!
December 19, 2016
Infuriating, frustrating, thought-provoking are the first words that come to my mind with this new book due out in January (thank you Net Galley for the advanced release copy). First, the topic is provocative and should provide your book club with some juicy discussion topics. This satire revolves around Karen, an overly-involved mother of an only child, bleeding heart do-gooder who works for an NGO, distracted wife with a shaky marriage, and constantly stressed and anxious over society and its perceptions of her. Many times, I wanted to strangle Karen, and her whiny brat of a child; they are not particularly likable, but I'm pretty sure that was the point. Thematically, the idea of social class is woven throughout the book, highlighting issues of equity amongst schools depending on their neighborhood and racial make-up, exposing the true feelings of parents and what is 'right' for whose kids, making the reader see one's self in so many of the characters that it becomes disconcerting. Rosenfeld uses plot devices, such as finding new friends at school, navigating snarky PTA parents, infidelity in marriage, even embezzlement, to highlight much deeper issues. On the surface, this could be just a book about a mom who would do anything, and I mean anything, to make herself feel better about society and the class differences that exist. However, delve deeper and talk about these issues and you will have one humdinger of a book discussion. The topic of social class is one that garners much less discussion and examination than it should; I appreciated the author's courage and creativity in dealing with this topic.
March 24, 2017
If you are a white liberal NYC public school mom (i.e., a lot of my friends) you will find this book a little disturbingly too familiar. Seriously she nailed it to a point where I was laughing uncomfortably on the subway and cringing at conversations in the book that I've literally had. Oof.
January 12, 2017
I wasn't quite sure what to expect of a novel pitched as involving thoughts on class structure and white liberal attitudes, but I figured it would be somewhere between strident and earnest, two things I hate. Much to my thrill, the tone of this novel was instead, light-hearted and even humorous. And yet it does have many, many discussions of class, income disparity, racism, inequality, opportunity, and so on. But Ms. Rosenfeld handles them with such a light hand that you never once feel like you're being lectured.
Karen works in development at a non-profit, Hungry Kids, and her husband, a former housing lawyer, is working on an app to connect low-income families with housing. Their daughter, Ruby, goes to the local public school very deliberately, where she is one of only 4 white students in her class. But when a boy (African-American, poor) in the class hurts another student (white, not poor), and that student leaves for a neighboring much, much better school, it starts Karen wondering, both about the other school's academic possibilities, and also about her daughter's safety at her school, and how racist is it of Karen if she prioritizes her daughter's education and safety over her experience of diversity? Karen is also experiencing some ennui in her own life, as her job and marriage have become rather boring, and so she makes some poor decisions that get out of hand, add way too much excitement into her life, and possibly blow everything up. The book zips along quickly, possibly aided by the lack of chapters (which I didn't notice until I was 200 pages in although that's something I normally would have noticed sooner and that normally would have bugged me. But it didn't here.) Ms. Rosenfeld skewers white guilt and the lefty free-trade, non-high-fructose-corn-syrup, do-gooder holier-than-thou attitudes mercilessly and humorously. Karen is constantly torn by both belonging to that group, and yet recognizing the ridiculous of it all. In her inner monologue we get to experience the same doubts and questions and inconsistencies that rage in our own minds--is it racist to be worried about these African-American teenagers walking towards me when I'm alone at night and I'm certain that I'd be just as nervous if it was a group of white kids?
I am not a mom but I feel pretty sure all my friends who are would love this book. And it would be perfect for book clubs as there's a ton to discuss. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Karen works in development at a non-profit, Hungry Kids, and her husband, a former housing lawyer, is working on an app to connect low-income families with housing. Their daughter, Ruby, goes to the local public school very deliberately, where she is one of only 4 white students in her class. But when a boy (African-American, poor) in the class hurts another student (white, not poor), and that student leaves for a neighboring much, much better school, it starts Karen wondering, both about the other school's academic possibilities, and also about her daughter's safety at her school, and how racist is it of Karen if she prioritizes her daughter's education and safety over her experience of diversity? Karen is also experiencing some ennui in her own life, as her job and marriage have become rather boring, and so she makes some poor decisions that get out of hand, add way too much excitement into her life, and possibly blow everything up. The book zips along quickly, possibly aided by the lack of chapters (which I didn't notice until I was 200 pages in although that's something I normally would have noticed sooner and that normally would have bugged me. But it didn't here.) Ms. Rosenfeld skewers white guilt and the lefty free-trade, non-high-fructose-corn-syrup, do-gooder holier-than-thou attitudes mercilessly and humorously. Karen is constantly torn by both belonging to that group, and yet recognizing the ridiculous of it all. In her inner monologue we get to experience the same doubts and questions and inconsistencies that rage in our own minds--is it racist to be worried about these African-American teenagers walking towards me when I'm alone at night and I'm certain that I'd be just as nervous if it was a group of white kids?
I am not a mom but I feel pretty sure all my friends who are would love this book. And it would be perfect for book clubs as there's a ton to discuss. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
January 18, 2018
Karen Kipple is a quintessential Yuppie. She is 47 years old, politically left leaning and views herself as a do-gooder. She works in 'development', the fund raising department of a non-profit organization, that is focused on issues of hunger in the impoverished community. She is married to Matt, an attorney who also works for a non-profit, and they have a daughter named Ruby who is in the third grade at a Betts, a local public school. Betts is known for the diversity of its student population but Karen is concerned that Ruby is only one of a few white faces in a sea of brown and black.
On the one hand, Karen is proud of herself for sending Ruby to Betts, but on the other hand she questions whether Ruby is getting the best education there. Gradually, due to her cognitive distortions as well as events that occur at the school, she talks herself into the necessity of getting Ruby into another school. Mather is another public school in their area. Unlike Betts, it has money to spare, and the student population is comprised primarily of upper class Caucasians. The Kipples are not in the right district for Mather but, without telling Matt, Karen devises a devious scheme to get Ruby into Mather.
This well-written novel is a parody of what it's like to be a legend in your own mind, to find ulterior motives for doing the wrong thing so it makes you look good. Karen's marriage is 'okay' to her. In reality, she and Matt hardly talk. They have been married for ten years and have about as much in common as a polar bear and a spring chicken. They are drifting even further apart and Karen still is blind to that fact.
The novel is somewhat repetitive but its message is very clear. Just because you shop at Whole Paycheck, consume organic food, avoid sugar, and act like you're liberal, it means squat. What is important is what's in your heart and Karen Kibble's heart follows the crowd without being sincere.
On the one hand, Karen is proud of herself for sending Ruby to Betts, but on the other hand she questions whether Ruby is getting the best education there. Gradually, due to her cognitive distortions as well as events that occur at the school, she talks herself into the necessity of getting Ruby into another school. Mather is another public school in their area. Unlike Betts, it has money to spare, and the student population is comprised primarily of upper class Caucasians. The Kipples are not in the right district for Mather but, without telling Matt, Karen devises a devious scheme to get Ruby into Mather.
This well-written novel is a parody of what it's like to be a legend in your own mind, to find ulterior motives for doing the wrong thing so it makes you look good. Karen's marriage is 'okay' to her. In reality, she and Matt hardly talk. They have been married for ten years and have about as much in common as a polar bear and a spring chicken. They are drifting even further apart and Karen still is blind to that fact.
The novel is somewhat repetitive but its message is very clear. Just because you shop at Whole Paycheck, consume organic food, avoid sugar, and act like you're liberal, it means squat. What is important is what's in your heart and Karen Kibble's heart follows the crowd without being sincere.
February 15, 2017
Thank you Goodreads, for providing me with this copy through the Giveaways program! My rating for this book is pretty low, but please note that I am not a very generous reviewer to begin with.
That said, I had a very hard time getting into this book, perhaps because it is a satire (although I do usually enjoy them), perhaps because I found the main character quite aggravating, or maybe because the book does not have chapters? The latter probably won't bother most people, but it drove me crazy! I like to "finish my chapter," instead of struggling through an endless succession of paragraphs.
For me to enjoy satire, it either has to be written with an enormous dose of humor, or be so exaggerated that I end up laughing about it anyway. Though Karen annoyed me, she never got to the point where it was so over the top that I found her to be amusing with her self righteousness and fear of "projecting."
It felt like there was a bit of disconnect between the first half of the book and the second, where the main character goes from one incredibly stupid decision to the next (like, seriously?!?). You know it can't possibly end well and that's what got me hooked ... wanting to find out what would happen. However, it felt out of character and too far fetched to fit in with the rest of the novel.
Overall, I feel like the author did a nice job exploring white privilege and liberal hypocrisy. I love it when a book makes me think and this one certainly did that, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the protagonist had been more relatable, or if the entire book was over-the-top crazy like the second half ... chapters would have been a big plus too.
That said, I had a very hard time getting into this book, perhaps because it is a satire (although I do usually enjoy them), perhaps because I found the main character quite aggravating, or maybe because the book does not have chapters? The latter probably won't bother most people, but it drove me crazy! I like to "finish my chapter," instead of struggling through an endless succession of paragraphs.
For me to enjoy satire, it either has to be written with an enormous dose of humor, or be so exaggerated that I end up laughing about it anyway. Though Karen annoyed me, she never got to the point where it was so over the top that I found her to be amusing with her self righteousness and fear of "projecting."
It felt like there was a bit of disconnect between the first half of the book and the second, where the main character goes from one incredibly stupid decision to the next (like, seriously?!?). You know it can't possibly end well and that's what got me hooked ... wanting to find out what would happen. However, it felt out of character and too far fetched to fit in with the rest of the novel.
Overall, I feel like the author did a nice job exploring white privilege and liberal hypocrisy. I love it when a book makes me think and this one certainly did that, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the protagonist had been more relatable, or if the entire book was over-the-top crazy like the second half ... chapters would have been a big plus too.
February 10, 2017
In this novel Lucinda Rosenfeld takes pointed aim at the white population living in a certain upper enclave of Brooklyn. The parents here love their artisanal coffee houses, peasant tunics, nannies, and raising money for La bohème performances at the elementary school their pale skinned children attend. Karen Kipple tries to live up to the higher ideals of a multi cultural education and instead bucks the trend by enrolling her daughter Ruby in Betts were she is a minority. When Ruby's best friend Maeve gets punched in the nose by Jayyden, Karen starts to question the wisdom of having her daughter enrolled in a school where the other students are so different from her. Complicating matters further is her growing estrangement with her husband Matt. Modern parenting with it's over scheduling of children, moms who are more enemies than friends, concern about the additives in foods, and social media etiquette are all examined in this sometimes funny, sometimes sad novel. Class is a topical look at the issues that divide and unite us.
April 20, 2017
I finished this book pretty quickly-- in two or three days. It was an easy read. I had high hopes, but the work did not meet my hopes. My biggest issue was how far Rosenfeld got into Karen's head, to the point where her main character was revealing her every thought in every last anxious detail. I guess it shows us readers how anxious mothers in Brooklyn can be but... I don't think I needed to read it ALL to get that point.
I'm fine with unlikeable characters, and Karen certainly is, but after a point I stopped believing in her. The choices she was making were ridiculously outrageous and I didn't believe she'd actually be making them-- so she became a manipulation tool, used to progress the plot, in a way that didn't jive with her character, not really.
My favorite part of the book was when her husband said that he thought college-educated white liberals are the most racist. Sometimes I'm inclined to agree.
I'm fine with unlikeable characters, and Karen certainly is, but after a point I stopped believing in her. The choices she was making were ridiculously outrageous and I didn't believe she'd actually be making them-- so she became a manipulation tool, used to progress the plot, in a way that didn't jive with her character, not really.
My favorite part of the book was when her husband said that he thought college-educated white liberals are the most racist. Sometimes I'm inclined to agree.
April 7, 2017
This was so good! I love a good "pretentious, insufferable people in Brooklyn/Manhattan" book (note: I am myself pretentious and insufferable, although not in Brooklyn or Manhattan, sadly), so this was right in my wheelhouse (don't you hate when pretentious, insufferable people say "in my wheelhouse"?). Anyway, this was great and I loved it. For fans of Motherland and Prospect Park West Amy Sohn, Triburbia by Karl Taro Greenfeld, Friendship by Emily Gould, and the like. I'd also like to add that I've read all of Lucinda Rosenfeld's books and I've liked them all, and I especially like how her characters have aged along with us.
February 10, 2017
A sharp satire about a well-meaning and entitled white woman who ends up betraying her principles in order to get her only daughter into a better (read whiter and more affluent) neighborhood public school. Yes, I wanted to slap Karen (often), but she does learn --some-- lessons. Overall, an enjoyable, pointed take on white upper-middle-class liberal parenting and its hypocrisies. ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
July 12, 2018
The premise here is great, and I think there’s a lot of well-intentioned white women who can relate to the disparity between Karen’s outward behavior and inward thoughts. That said, the execution of the storyline is not very good & Karens behavior veers from distasteful to downright reprehensible as the plot goes forward. Could have been so much better.
February 2, 2018
This was one of those horrifying books where you keep seeing the heroine do THE dumbest things and you can't do a thing to stop her.
January 8, 2017
Lucinda Rosenfeld takes a gentrified neighborhood like Park Slope, Brooklyn, and throws in the kitchen sink. Every character, even the children (please forgive me) are unlikable, many to the extreme. Class is about the division of socioeconomic classes in the public school system and with a play on words it is about whether an upper middle class person has any real class at all.
As a well known character on "The Housewives of New York" sings, "Money can't buy you class."
The main character is Karen, a mom of a third grader named Ruby and a fund raiser at a non-profit called Hungry Kids. Her husband, Matt, is trying to get an NGO for affordable housing started. They live in a zone that requires Ruby to be in an underperforming public school. The cliche about throwing stones and glass houses definitely applies here. None of us escape LR's shrewd view. It doesn't matter if you send your child to the neighborhood public school, find a way to slip them into a slightly better public school, a charter school, or fork over college level tuition for a private school. Parents are the bad guys here and I can see glimpses of myself when my daughter was so very young and I had yet to teach below the higher ed level. I definitely chose a "progressive" pre-school for her and would have been happy for her to stay there if we hadn't moved overseas for her kindergarten year.
Striving to provide the best possible choices for our children is what most of us do but in LR's world, it is done to the point of insanity and in some cases, we break the law to do it. The constant striving is part of a materialistic mind set where nothing is ever good enough. The culture wars are alive and well in Brooklyn and I'm sure in most places where affluent couples live these days.
This is satire that bites hard. It is worth the read, a fast one.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Little Brown and Company (publish date: January 10th 2017).
As a well known character on "The Housewives of New York" sings, "Money can't buy you class."
The main character is Karen, a mom of a third grader named Ruby and a fund raiser at a non-profit called Hungry Kids. Her husband, Matt, is trying to get an NGO for affordable housing started. They live in a zone that requires Ruby to be in an underperforming public school. The cliche about throwing stones and glass houses definitely applies here. None of us escape LR's shrewd view. It doesn't matter if you send your child to the neighborhood public school, find a way to slip them into a slightly better public school, a charter school, or fork over college level tuition for a private school. Parents are the bad guys here and I can see glimpses of myself when my daughter was so very young and I had yet to teach below the higher ed level. I definitely chose a "progressive" pre-school for her and would have been happy for her to stay there if we hadn't moved overseas for her kindergarten year.
Striving to provide the best possible choices for our children is what most of us do but in LR's world, it is done to the point of insanity and in some cases, we break the law to do it. The constant striving is part of a materialistic mind set where nothing is ever good enough. The culture wars are alive and well in Brooklyn and I'm sure in most places where affluent couples live these days.
This is satire that bites hard. It is worth the read, a fast one.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Little Brown and Company (publish date: January 10th 2017).
December 24, 2016
Karen Kessler is a working mom in Brooklyn. She runs a non-profit, as does her husband. She deals with hunger, he with housing. Ruby their daughter is in elementary school and typifies that cute but spoiled winey voice that starts very young but the guilt ridden parents can’t quite squash it. They live in a hip neighborhood with an integrated school that thrilled them. At first. When a few behavior issues arise with children that may not have the supervision they need at home, Karen too quickly doubts her choices and second guesses her decision to live this bohemian life outside of the pricey private schools. With every parent she meets that switches to the less integrated version, Karen’s underlying jealousy lifts its ugly head. Deep deep down inside (it’s called the “truth”) Karen thinks she is not willing to sacrifice Ruby’s academic future or well-being socially to prove a point she is not even sure she is making anymore. At the same time this fortyish woman is questioning her relationship with her husband whom she is having a hard time identifying his good qualities. She is unquestioningly attracted to an old college friend’s success that she should not meet for another drink under the pretense he may be a donor to her non-profit. This fast paced, terrific story has one main underlying theme: Are we living as our true selves or who we would “like” that true self to be and is there a difference? Highly recommend this excellent read and look forward to more works by Lucinda Rosenfeld.
February 12, 2017
I suppose this is a terrible thing to say, but I have very little patience reading about the angst and problems and emotional journeys of privileged, heterosexual white people.
I know. I feel bad about it, but there it is.
That said, Lucinda Rosenfeld writes about those problems with damn fine technique and packs in plenty of plot and emotional heft, and there are endless hilarious lines skewering the class-conscious characters about whom she writes. She is quite ruthless in delivering incisive and trenchant commentary on the vapidity and callous self-involvement of those very privileged, heterosexual white people about whom I don't much want to read.
The main character, Karen Kipple, wants to be ethical, do the right thing, reject the casual cultural racism and classism by which she finds herself infected, and makes her torturous way through the landmine-filled challenge of modern life. Lucinda Rosenfeld does not try to make Karen likeable, or forgivable; she gives her plenty of flaws, lets her be petty and selfish and self-justifying as she struggles with her liberal hypocrisy.
This book is smart, brutally honest, and made me sad. I know Karens. There are --- no doubt --- pieces of Karen in me, and what made me uncomfortable and unhappy while reading, is that we are now living in a world where there are people defending and embracing and encouraging the kind of prejudices and fears those Karens are fighting.
I know. I feel bad about it, but there it is.
That said, Lucinda Rosenfeld writes about those problems with damn fine technique and packs in plenty of plot and emotional heft, and there are endless hilarious lines skewering the class-conscious characters about whom she writes. She is quite ruthless in delivering incisive and trenchant commentary on the vapidity and callous self-involvement of those very privileged, heterosexual white people about whom I don't much want to read.
The main character, Karen Kipple, wants to be ethical, do the right thing, reject the casual cultural racism and classism by which she finds herself infected, and makes her torturous way through the landmine-filled challenge of modern life. Lucinda Rosenfeld does not try to make Karen likeable, or forgivable; she gives her plenty of flaws, lets her be petty and selfish and self-justifying as she struggles with her liberal hypocrisy.
This book is smart, brutally honest, and made me sad. I know Karens. There are --- no doubt --- pieces of Karen in me, and what made me uncomfortable and unhappy while reading, is that we are now living in a world where there are people defending and embracing and encouraging the kind of prejudices and fears those Karens are fighting.
May 14, 2017
Back when I hoped/assumed Tim Kaine would be our current Vice President, I read with interest the extensive essay on him in The New Yorker. I commented to my husband that I was impressed that he and his wife, both ivy educated, made the brave and admirable decision to send their kids to a standard public school. My husband, a staunch liberal, bristled and said, "and none of their kids are going to ivies... or pursuing anything of substance. You don't sacrifice your kids' futures for your ideals."
This has stayed with me as I watch our world progress ever further to a mentality that often dismisses the accomplishments of those who are white and not poor and look to glorify everyone else. And while I myself resent those who truly act privileged - not people whose skin is simply white but people who adopt an attitude of utter ignorance and apathy to problems that do not affect them due to lack of exposure - I also recognize the very real tension of wanting your kids to be aware and sensitive versus having whatever advantages you can give them and not unduly punishing them in ways that don't help the greater cause anyway.
Class takes on these issues, and I'm happy it does because they need to be discussed, but if only it hadn't been done so poorly.
Karen is, on the one hand, so many of us - a well meaning modern mom who bears the ever growing guilt of being educated, financially well enough off, and white who genuinely wants to do good and be sensitive while battling her own personal needs and instincts that contradict this new world of ideals. Her conflicts and concerns are certainly relatable - whether about nagging her husband or quietly judging the snacks of low income children or insisting on sending her daughter to a sub par but integrated public school, all the while wishing there were more white people - but MAN was she annoying and unlikable. The author did not manage to cross that line into "flawed but relatable" and instead gave us high strung, judgy, and self pitying and condescending.
Karen decides to remove her daughter from said school (where she is mostly unchallenged and surrounded by dubious influences) when a boy seems to be physically threatening her safety. But this move is not only done abruptly and frankly stupidly (one day notice to her daughter, no discussion with her husband, and illegally claiming a different address for zoning reasons - not to mention just two months before the school year is over) thus warranting her somewhat understandable concerns as rather silly and rather questionable not to mention selfish.
While at the better (and whiter school), the author implements every cliche in the world for the bored, wealthy, white mom who obsesses over getting loom weaving lessons for her four year old Spencer whilst pretending to care about different cultures but truthfully sticking to her own kind. The lack of nuance was maddening, and the book tried too hard to be both funny and perceptive while failing at both as it was largely ridiculous.
Karen falls into an interesting dilemma while serving as fundraiser in the new school- should she lift some of the unused and abundant funds and send them anonymously to the underprivileged school, thus attempting to even the skewed economic world our children suffer from?
Well I won't say more but that conflict did interest me though the it did little to outweigh the books flaws. Do we have a problem of wealth inequality such that people can't ever achieve based on things beyond their control? Yes. Has public school, meant to be the great equalizer, once more become another way to separate - perhaps forever- the haves from the have nots? Yes. Is diversity for diversity sake a value and value enough that it trumps your child's growth and development? Hard to say. These are topics that need to be spoken about but with nuance and honesty. People need to not be afraid to offend when they consider the drawbacks of these choices. Money cannot only be seen as useful for the very poor when the middle class has its needs too even if they aren't as sexy. And diverse populations are educational and important but also come with a reverse discrimination that needs to be discussed as well.
Having read The Devil and Webster, a book that takes on a tangentially related topic but does a FAR superior job, I do wish someone with more skill and talent would write this novel. It's important enough to get right.
This has stayed with me as I watch our world progress ever further to a mentality that often dismisses the accomplishments of those who are white and not poor and look to glorify everyone else. And while I myself resent those who truly act privileged - not people whose skin is simply white but people who adopt an attitude of utter ignorance and apathy to problems that do not affect them due to lack of exposure - I also recognize the very real tension of wanting your kids to be aware and sensitive versus having whatever advantages you can give them and not unduly punishing them in ways that don't help the greater cause anyway.
Class takes on these issues, and I'm happy it does because they need to be discussed, but if only it hadn't been done so poorly.
Karen is, on the one hand, so many of us - a well meaning modern mom who bears the ever growing guilt of being educated, financially well enough off, and white who genuinely wants to do good and be sensitive while battling her own personal needs and instincts that contradict this new world of ideals. Her conflicts and concerns are certainly relatable - whether about nagging her husband or quietly judging the snacks of low income children or insisting on sending her daughter to a sub par but integrated public school, all the while wishing there were more white people - but MAN was she annoying and unlikable. The author did not manage to cross that line into "flawed but relatable" and instead gave us high strung, judgy, and self pitying and condescending.
Karen decides to remove her daughter from said school (where she is mostly unchallenged and surrounded by dubious influences) when a boy seems to be physically threatening her safety. But this move is not only done abruptly and frankly stupidly (one day notice to her daughter, no discussion with her husband, and illegally claiming a different address for zoning reasons - not to mention just two months before the school year is over) thus warranting her somewhat understandable concerns as rather silly and rather questionable not to mention selfish.
While at the better (and whiter school), the author implements every cliche in the world for the bored, wealthy, white mom who obsesses over getting loom weaving lessons for her four year old Spencer whilst pretending to care about different cultures but truthfully sticking to her own kind. The lack of nuance was maddening, and the book tried too hard to be both funny and perceptive while failing at both as it was largely ridiculous.
Karen falls into an interesting dilemma while serving as fundraiser in the new school- should she lift some of the unused and abundant funds and send them anonymously to the underprivileged school, thus attempting to even the skewed economic world our children suffer from?
Well I won't say more but that conflict did interest me though the it did little to outweigh the books flaws. Do we have a problem of wealth inequality such that people can't ever achieve based on things beyond their control? Yes. Has public school, meant to be the great equalizer, once more become another way to separate - perhaps forever- the haves from the have nots? Yes. Is diversity for diversity sake a value and value enough that it trumps your child's growth and development? Hard to say. These are topics that need to be spoken about but with nuance and honesty. People need to not be afraid to offend when they consider the drawbacks of these choices. Money cannot only be seen as useful for the very poor when the middle class has its needs too even if they aren't as sexy. And diverse populations are educational and important but also come with a reverse discrimination that needs to be discussed as well.
Having read The Devil and Webster, a book that takes on a tangentially related topic but does a FAR superior job, I do wish someone with more skill and talent would write this novel. It's important enough to get right.
April 25, 2017
I picked up this book in the library because, from the synopsis on the book flap, it sounded a little like the story of my life - educated white parents sending their kid to an urban, mostly non-white low-income school - and an exploration of their mixed emotions about that. At the beginning, it was so close to home as to be uncomfortable - the parents mostly being proud that they send their kid to this school, but secretly worried about what she is picking up from the other students and if her needs will be met.
But then, when the girl transferred to a much wealthier school, it went far away from our experience. Maybe it's because I don't live in NYC, so even the wealthy suburban schools around here have nothing on the one in the book - the PTA had almost $1 million in their account! I don't think this is exaggeration, as I have read stories of NYC PTA officers stealing tens of thousand of dollars from their accounts, and I always wondering how they had so much in their account to being with!
The main character was making so many sketchy decisions that it was almost impossible for me to read the second half because it stressed me out so much! But I did like the ending, so I'm glad I finished.
But then, when the girl transferred to a much wealthier school, it went far away from our experience. Maybe it's because I don't live in NYC, so even the wealthy suburban schools around here have nothing on the one in the book - the PTA had almost $1 million in their account! I don't think this is exaggeration, as I have read stories of NYC PTA officers stealing tens of thousand of dollars from their accounts, and I always wondering how they had so much in their account to being with!
The main character was making so many sketchy decisions that it was almost impossible for me to read the second half because it stressed me out so much! But I did like the ending, so I'm glad I finished.
August 9, 2020
Karen Kipple is a wife and late-life mother, employed in the nonprofit sector who struggles with issues of race and class in society and within herself. She's Ivy-league educated and secretly fears her 8 year-old daughter is of average intelligence and wishes her lower-middle class husband was more "bourgeois". Although often critical of other college-educated white liberals, she finds herself in similar acts of hypocrisy.
Karen reflects: "It was easy to get worked up about racism when you didn't have to engage with any actual black people. Not that Karen, aside from her friendship with Lou, lead an integrated life. But at least she tried" (p. 110).
At times this character was irritating and exhausting with her bouts of elitism and selfishness. Taking a trip through the mind of Karen was like watching an unfortunate train wreck, but unable to look away, my reading continued.
This satirical book has a good writing style and moments of true humor and insight. But yeah, Karen is that girl.
Karen reflects: "It was easy to get worked up about racism when you didn't have to engage with any actual black people. Not that Karen, aside from her friendship with Lou, lead an integrated life. But at least she tried" (p. 110).
At times this character was irritating and exhausting with her bouts of elitism and selfishness. Taking a trip through the mind of Karen was like watching an unfortunate train wreck, but unable to look away, my reading continued.
This satirical book has a good writing style and moments of true humor and insight. But yeah, Karen is that girl.
May 8, 2018
Loved this book. Reminded me of Donna Tarrts writing style. Solid story and characters. I enjoyed it.
April 6, 2021
Social satire that sometimes hit a little too close to home as a white mom with kids who attend integrated schools. Some far fetched plot points but a good overall read.
July 22, 2018
I finished it, but... The characters are very flat, and no real self analysis. One comment on the cover was "wickedly funny" - not funny at all. This is a serious topic and the author does not take it far enough. Disappointing.
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