Crossing California
by Adam Langer
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Read in June, 2007
In the weirdest confluence of events (is that right? eh, don't tell me if it's not; I like the way it sounds), our July bookgroup choice was Crossing California. We received it on Thursday the 14th, a mere three days before I had tickets to go see Katie in an adaptation of the selfsame book! I started the book, saw the play, then finished the book. It was nice to have a sense of character going into the play, although it was a little difficult to get them back to how I originally pictured th...more
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Read in March, 2008
So I started this book about twenty-seven times, and always got turned off in the first three pages because of the "normal life in the shadow of the hostage crisis" frame. Plus, the name "Muley," and eighth graders lying about giving hickies. If there is anything that doesn't say "relaxation reading" to me it's the hostage crisis; if there's anything less relaxing than hostages it's eighth grade and hickies. Ugh.
But then, if you get past page three things shift...more
But then, if you get past page three things shift...more
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Read in April, 2006
I saw Jonathan Safran Foer speak at a reading a couple of years ago, and he mentioned that there are a lot of books that you read and like, or even that you love, but there are only very few books that you read and you feel as if they were written especially for you. I felt like this book was written especially for me. One of the central characters is a nerdy 13-year old girl interested in politics and journalism; her best friend starts out as a tape cutter at the public radio station and ends...more
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Read in December, 2007
This book jumped out at me as I was browsing at Borders. I had never heard of it and didn't know much of what to expect. The book is set during the late 70's/ early 80's in a suburb of Chicago. The neighborhood is pretty much central to the story and a character in it's own right. The weird coincidence that I discovered within the first chapter, is a guy that I had a crush on for all of high school and most of my twenties, moved to this neighborhood when I was in tenth grade. His street is the s...more
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Read in January, 2007
i fucking love this book. i also love nostalgia for the late 70's/early 80's chicago, right as i was being born. this book is about when and where i was born, in jewish western rogers park in chicago. there's a map in the front that includes landmarks that i actually remember from being a wee kiddo, like the radio shack and warren park. i kinda expected this book to be mediocre and i would love it anyway, but instead it is wonderful. it's mostly about teenagers, their social lives, their fa...more
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Read in April, 2007
I was recommended this book by someone that lives in the neighborhood where the book takes place. Ironically, after reading the book, I moved into a neighborhood that is right next to where the book takes place. The neighborhood is Rogers Park which is in north Chicago and is a highly Jewish neighborhood.
While the book follows the events of a couple of Jewish teens, it also focuses heavily on the streets that they call home and the significance of crossing certain territories.
This book migh...more
While the book follows the events of a couple of Jewish teens, it also focuses heavily on the streets that they call home and the significance of crossing certain territories.
This book migh...more
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I'm adding this book to my list of favorite Chicago stories (California refers to the street that divides a Rogers Park neighborhood). What a great cast of characters! I think Michelle Wasserstrom is one of the most richly drawn characters I've read in a long time. She'll remind you of someone you've known at some point in your life, guaranteed.
This is one of those books where you have a bunch of separate, yet related stories that intersect and overlap with each other throughout -- but the ...more
This is one of those books where you have a bunch of separate, yet related stories that intersect and overlap with each other throughout -- but the ...more
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Read in June, 2006
recommends it for:
Chicagoans of a certain age
This book hit me right in my demographic: I was in jr. high and living on the north side of Chicago during the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979-80. The only thing I didn't have in common with these kids is I was not Jewish; however, their experiences and the times transcend that difference. Besides, I would've given my eyeteeth (and thrown in my older brother too) to be on a kid's radio show back then! Maybe that'd still be true now....
So I really liked this book for the memories of the time &...more
So I really liked this book for the memories of the time &...more
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I wish I could give this book 3.5 stars, as I'm somewhere between like it and really liked it.
"Crossing California" is set in Chicago, Rogers Park and West Rogers Park (very close to the neighborhood I live in!) It chronicles the angsty lives of a group of pre-teens and teens that live on both the east and west sides of California Avenue (hence the title!). The older crowd experiments with drugs, alcohol and sex. The younger set gets Bat Mizvahed, learns to make out (well, some of...more
"Crossing California" is set in Chicago, Rogers Park and West Rogers Park (very close to the neighborhood I live in!) It chronicles the angsty lives of a group of pre-teens and teens that live on both the east and west sides of California Avenue (hence the title!). The older crowd experiments with drugs, alcohol and sex. The younger set gets Bat Mizvahed, learns to make out (well, some of...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Chicagoans, Gen X-ers
My lord, it took me longer than I expected to get through this book. It's really fun, but long for a coming-of-age type novel. Anyone who grew up in Chicago will get a kick out of the MANY references to local sites. A reviewer referred to this book as "hyperdetailed" and that is pretty accurate. There are four families living in West Rogers Park around 1979-1980. There are some characters that are charming and quirky, and others that are downright annoying. All their stories intertwine...more
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Read in May, 2005
Yet another Chicago-related book. This one covers the early 1980s and the lives of several families in the northern suburbish area called Rogers Park. California is in reference to the street in Chicago, not the state, and how it marks a line between neighborhoods. Chicago is, afterall, a city of neighborhoods and also a city with an obvious divide between races. Growing up in the Southern U.S. I never thought I would encounter such disctinctions between race as I have found in Chicago. This boo...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
everyone
I LOVED this book, and I don't kid when I recommend it for everyone. The LA Times compared it to Trollope, and that an apt comparison (don't worry, it's not as long as a Trollope novel). Although summaries generally talk about main characters Jill Wasserstrom and her sister Michelle, and Jill's best friend Muley Willis, this generous novel encompasses all of the characters that touch their lives. There are so many stories in this novel that one couldn't describe all of them, and they all come ba...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Robert, Brigid, Jerome, Sharon
"Crossing California" is one of the most endearing books I've read in the past few years. Set in Chicago from 1979-1981, the book follows two Jewish families (the Wasserstroms and the Rovners), a sensitive pre-teen (Muley Wills), his jaded mother Deirdre and nearly everyone who makes an impression on their lives. Langer is almost cinematic in the way he effortlessly intertwines the characters. This book made me feel what it was like to grow up in Rogers Park in the late 70s and early ...more
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This book will make you laugh out loud, and even the people who begrudgingly let you read that funny part over again to them out loud while you are on a never-ending road trip, will laugh once you do. I think it is loosely autobiographical, the author having been a teen in chicago's south side in the 70s. Earnest depictions of where race and class intersected, and what it was like in highschool, in teenagehood...not to mention crazy plot twists. Plus a 16 year old who pretends to be russian and ...more
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Read in February, 2008
This is a fun read about kids growing up in my neighborhood: West Rogers Park. To be more direct, it's about Jewish kids- conservative, reformed, hardly Jewish- growing up in the late 70s and 80s. I never knew that California was the dividing line between the rich side of West Rogers Park and less wealthy side. It runs the spectrum of good high schoolers to drugged up teens searching for true self-identity. If you like references to Wolfy's, Nortown Library, Fondue Stube, Ida Crowne, Mather ...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
I didnt want this book to end. It is the story about a few families in the 1970's growing up in a midwest surburban Jewish community, told from the point of views of the kids. The themes of Judiasm, young adulthood, family, love, music, 1970's rebellion, socialism, current events, racism and school were all woven together hilariously as well as touchingly. I was thrilled to find out that there is a sequel, The Washington Story, focusing on the characters as they enter and go through college and ...more
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Read in April, 2008
I LOVED this book for about the first three quarters of it--like, "went to bed a little earlier just to keep reading, thought about the characters during the day" loved it.
Towards the end though, it became a little bit harder to care enough about all of the characters. I still thoroughly enjoyed the read, but it's maybe not weighty enough to earn five stars.
Regardless, I still highly recommend it, especially if you're a big fan of modern fiction (although this is 70s/80s), and na...more
Towards the end though, it became a little bit harder to care enough about all of the characters. I still thoroughly enjoyed the read, but it's maybe not weighty enough to earn five stars.
Regardless, I still highly recommend it, especially if you're a big fan of modern fiction (although this is 70s/80s), and na...more
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This is one of those books I picked up several times before I actually bought and read it. I thought, it's about several Jewish kids growing up in Chicago in the seventies- how am I going to relate to them? Turns out that you can appreciate the time without have been born yet! Langer patiently delves into the lives of each character, allowing you to see how they are all connected and allowing each to exist as a story on its own. It will surprise you which characters become your favorites too!
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Read in May, 2008
I chose this book off the sale table, in part because of the comparisons made to Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. Those two Pulitzer Prize winners demonstrate a virtuosity not much in evidence in this overlong study of a dozen characters in 1980s Chicago. It reads to me rather more like a young adult novel, and if read in that light has a lot going for it, including a keen eye for period detail and some clever interconnections among the characters.
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Coming of age story set in 1980 Chicago.
I think this book was a victim of its own ambition. While the children's characters were well captured, the adults were completely two dimensional.
Also, I think something was missing in the author's efforts to capture the zeitgeist of the times. The author really fumbled with the issue of race (but he was on to something in his exploration of the advent of post-civil rights era race relations)
I think this book was a victim of its own ambition. While the children's characters were well captured, the adults were completely two dimensional.
Also, I think something was missing in the author's efforts to capture the zeitgeist of the times. The author really fumbled with the issue of race (but he was on to something in his exploration of the advent of post-civil rights era race relations)
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