Crossing California

New York: Riverhead, 2004. First Edition. Hardcover. New/New. Signed first edition. New.

About the book: Poignant, ambitious, and tremendously fun, Crossing California is the fiction discovery of the season-a novel about two generations of family and friendship in Chicago from November 1979 through January 1981. In 1979 California Avenue, in Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood, separates the upper-middle-class Jewish families from the mostly middle-class Jewish residents on the east of the divide. This by turns funny and heartbreaking first novel tells the story of three families and their teenage children living on either side of California, following their loves, heartaches, and friendships during a memorable moment of American history. Langer's captivating portraits, his uncanny and extraordinarily vivid re-creation of a not-so-past time and place, and his pitch-perfect dialogue all make Crossing California certain to evoke memories and longing in its readers...as well as laughter and anxiety. Whether viewed as an American Graffiti for the seventies, The (Jewish) Corrections, a Chicagoan Manhattan, or early Philip Roth for a later generation, Crossing California is an unforgettable, and thoroughly enjoyable, contribution to contemporary fiction.

A selection of awards:
Chicago Tribune Best Books of 2004
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2004
Wall Street Journal Top Summer Read

About the author (from the author's website): I was born in 1967 and grew up on North Mozart Street in Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood, once home to Burghard's Egg Factory, Roband's Drugstore, and the Starsky & Fudge ice cream parlor. My early childhood was spent listening to Miss Kaufmann read stories at Nortown Public Library, learning to draw and color in Miss O'Connor's kindergarten class at Boone Elementary, walking along Lunt Avenue Beach with my mother. I finally left Chicago in 1984 to attend Vassar College, but returned in 1988 and worked for a little over a decade as an editor, nonfiction author, playwright, theater director, and very occasional film producer. I wrote for a number of periodicals, especially the Chicago Reader. In 2000, I won a fellowship to Columbia University's National Arts Journalism Program and thought I would write a nonfiction book about the uncomfortable relationship between arts and the corporate world. The working title was For a Few Dollars More. Instead, I wound up writing fiction and remaining in New York where I served as senior editor of Book Magazine until that publication folded in 2003....These days, I write full-time, mostly fiction, but occasionally articles...." He is currently also the culture editor for the Forward, the longstanding Jewish newspaper/magazine.

Reviews:
"[Langer's] ambitious first novel...hits high points of comic empathy....He thoroughly and elaborately exposes the narrow goals and narcissistic motivations of his middle-class Midwestern characters." Mark Karmine, New York Times, July 25, 2004

"...dazzling debut novel....Langer's story is powerful and amusing; he has created a world that is ultimately recognizable in its portrayals of the ironies, heartache and joy of day-to-day life." Kristin Kloberdanz, The Baltimore Sun, June 6, 2004.

Other novels include:
The Washington Story (2005)
Ellington Boulevard (2008)
The Thieves of Manhattan (2010)
The Salinger Contract (2013)

ABEDESC
The "California" of the title of this book is not...California. It's actually California Avenue, in Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood, and divides the upper-middle-class Jewish families on the west from the mostly middle-class Jewish households east of the divide. Crossing California follows three families, including their teenage children, in the eventful months from November 1979 through January 1981-a period that spans the Iran hostage crisis through the inauguration of Ronald Reagan. Mark Karmine, in his review for the New York Times, said Crossing California "hits high points of comic empathy," and Kristin Kloberdanz, of the Baltimore Sun, called it a "dazzling debut novel" that is "powerful and amusing." Langer signed our new copy and it is in perfect condition. The Library of Congress catalog entry for this title says it was printed on alkaline paper and gives its physical description as: 432 p. : map ; 24 cm.