Ami asked Jeff Hobbs:

Something that dances around the edges of your book is the challenge of finding a secure job, as hard for the Yale graduates as for Robert's friends from Newark. Do you think coming of age this era--recession, lack of jobs--contributed an additional heavy burden for Robert? Or does the story feel timeless?

Jeff Hobbs Dear Ami, thank you for your question and I'm sorry for the delay in responding. This is a good question because it's such a hard one, with no clear answer. I've spent a lot of time weighing this -- how much of Rob's trials and fatal decisions were structural/societal, and how much were caused by his own, individual nature. If this story tells us anything, it's that being a human being is messy, especially a human being with values as conflicted as Rob's were. I do think there are timeless elements, such as the knotted problem of addressing students problems on the individual level in our educational institutions. At the same time, though the recession obviously didn't help (particularly with his real estate ambitions), Rob did seem to have certain motivations that were fixed in his consciousness from a very young age. I realize that this is more of a conversation than a direct answer, so feel free to respond with your thoughts. Thanks so much for reaching out. All the best, Jeff

flag