For Karen Kipple, being a good person isn't just something to aspire to. It's something that she can-and will-succeed at. Karen works for a nonprofit that helps feed disadvantaged youth. For the sake of championing local businesses, she frequents the neighborhood's overpriced coffee shop even though their slow drip tastes like it's been filtered through a dirty sock. And she sends her daughter, Ruby, to an integrated urban public school, where white people like herself are the minority, because she values diversity.
But when a troubled boy starts bullying kids in Ruby's class, and Ruby's similarly privileged best friend leaves the school for safer grounds, Karen finds herself questioning her values. Will she stick to her ideals or become the type of person she loathes?
Just how far she will go with practically everything--her marriage, her daughter's education, her sense of right and wrong--is at the core of
Class. Because it turns out that life as we live it, and not as we like to imagine it, often unfolds in gray areas. Hailed by
Kirkus Reviews as a "take-no-prisoners satire" that's "grimly hilarious,"
Class is a brilliant novel for our times.
Industry Reviews
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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)
"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.
"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
"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
"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
"This take-no-prisoners satire puts politically correct urbanites in their place for real.... Grimly hilarious.... Right on, Rosenfeld."--Kirkus Reviews
"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 attack on upper-middle-class pieties is unerring in its aim.--New Yorker
"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
