Class

by Lucinda Rosenfeld

Overview

Named one of the Best Books of 2017 by the Philadelphia Inquirer: All hell breaks loose in the liberal bubble when a mother's life spirals out of control when she's forced to rethink her bleeding heart ideals.

For Karen Kipple, it isn't enough that she works full-time in the nonprofit sector for an organization that helps 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 begin to feel uncomfortably close to home. A daring, discussable satire about gentrification and liberal hypocrisy, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316265430
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	09/12/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lucinda Rosenfeld is the author of the novels The Pretty One, What She Saw..., Why She Went Home, and I'm So Happy For You. Her fiction and essays have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, oprah.com, and other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and two daughters.

Editorial Reviews

…stiletto-sharp…In a series of skillfully executed set pieces, Rosenfeld skewers the pretensions and preoccupations of women for whom "parent" is both verb and competitive sport…It's easy to make fun of the artisanal-loving hipster bohos of Brooklyn, and many have done it before. Luckily, Ms. Rosenfeld is an astute anthropologist whose satire reaches fresh levels of absurdity.

The New York Times - Sarah Lyall

"Stiletto sharp...in a series of skillfully executed set pieces, Rosenfeld skewers the pretensions and preoccupations of women for whom "parent" is both verb and competitive sport...Ms. Rosenfeld is an astute anthropologist whose satire reaches fresh levels of absurdity."—Sarah Lyall, The New York Times

"Lucinda Rosenfeld's deliciously smart and original new novel, CLASS, had me riveted from page one. Karen Kipple's ethical dilemmas will be familiar to any urbanite with a conscience. Rosenfeld has pulled off something rare-she has shown it's possible to write a fun and juicy-yet also sincere-book about liberal guilt and social hypocrisy."—Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.

"I haven't liked being in a conflicted, bizarre, earnest, and tormented character's head this much since the time I spent with Patty Berglund in Jonathan Franzen's Freedom... CLASS is so good!!!"—Wednesday Martin, author of Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir

"With CLASS, Lucinda Rosenfeld has written a spot-on satire of the 'new' Brooklynites as they hit the parenting phase. Her Karen Kipple is a modern-day mom driven slightly mad by the conflict between her ideals and the reality subverting them. Over anxious and underappreciated, she still strives to do the right thing, and, like most of us, doesn't always succeed. Like its protagonist, this is a smart book that also knows how to have a little fun."—Eddie Joyce, author of Small Mercies

"Rosenfeld's writing showcases the keen eye of a cultural anthropologist steeped in the rituals of the urban upper-middle class. With an acerbic wit and insight...she deftly punctures the hypocrisy that's sometimes exposed in the daunting process of trying to be true to one's professed beliefs.... A piercing take on one woman's struggle to narrow the gap between her liberal ideals and the realities of modern urban life."—Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness

"This satirical novel will have you thinking about your own values amidst society and its hypocrisy. If you belong to a book club, consider adding Rosenfeld's book to your roster-it will make for great discussion."—Bella NYC

"Every time Karen Kipple...worries about keeping her daughter in a New York City public school, I want to shake her - and look in the mirror."
—The Washington Post

"CLASS is a brilliant depiction of the role of race and class in America seen through the lens of its public schools. This novel is brave, funny, and persuasive, and had me wincing like crazy with recognition. Lucinda Rosenfeld hits all the right notes."—Bliss Broyard, author of One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life-A Story of Race and Family Secrets

"A genuinely enjoyable story about a woman who is both preposterous and recognizable and a plotline that is at once absurd and possibly happening in your own neighbourhood at this very moment."—The Globe and Mail

Rosenfeld's attack on upper-middle-class pieties is unerring in its aim.—New Yorker

"A take-no-prisoners racial romp and commentary on modern motherhood as told by a descendant of Tracy Flick."—Sloane Crosley, New York Times Book Review

"This take-no-prisoners satire puts politically correct urbanites in their place for real.... Grimly hilarious.... Right on, Rosenfeld."—Kirkus Reviews

"The story is uncomfortable and excellently handled by Rosenfeld; it invites questions about faithfulness and philanthropy, one's obligation to those less fortunate, and what it means to be middle-class in an unequal society."—Publishers Weekly

"Karen is a flawed and unlikable character, to be sure, but a certain sector of readers will identify with her-cringing all the while. Rosenfeld's sharp and searing look at race and class in urban America will make quite an impression on readers and will become an excellent book discussion selection. It will make readers uncomfortable, but for all the right reasons."—Rebecca Vnuk, Booklist (starred review)

From the Publisher

2016-10-05
This take-no-prisoners satire puts politically correct urbanites in their place for real.Karen Kipple and her husband, Matt, both career activists in the nonprofit sector, have righteously enrolled their daughter in their zoned public elementary school, where “the white population…hovered around 20 percent.” However, Karen, like some other white parents, is concerned that she's sacrificed quality education for diversity. Among other dubious accomplishments, her daughter can recite the wedding date of Coretta and Martin Luther King—because “every month was Black History Month—except when it was Latino History Month.” A scuffle on the playground between a Jayyden and a Maeve further divides the parents along racial lines: “What that kid needs is a serious whupping” versus “With all due respect, violence is not the answer to violence.” Karen is so beached in the mud of responsible domesticity that it has affected even her dreams, “the majority of them so prosaic that she sometimes felt embarrassed when she woke up.” But this pill of a woman, depicted in deadpan, grimly hilarious detail, is about to cut loose—starting an extramarital affair with a billionaire she's canvassing for her nonprofit, stealing gas bills out of the trash so she can move her daughter to a whiter public school, then performing an insane Robin Hood maneuver that could land her in that most racially imbalanced environment of them all. Rosenfeld (The Pretty One, 2013) depicts Karen with such pitiless disdain that it's a welcome surprise when the plot gives her a chance at redemption. From its James Baldwin epigraph—“White people cannot, in the generality, be taken as models of how to live”—to the final pages, in which Karen decides not to inquire about the fate of young Jayyden to avoid appearing “like one of those well-meaning, college-educated white liberals who fetishize the deprivations of the underclass,” this book takes dead aim and doesn’t miss. Comin’ at you “with a copy of Karl Marx’s Capital in one hand and a raisin bagel in the other.” Right on, Rosenfeld.

Kirkus Reviews