Customer Reviews

Crossing California

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

There are bad novels, average novels, good novels, great novels, and then once in a while a novel comes along that rattles the cage of what, optimally, this literary form can and should achieve when approached by a fresh pen loaded with new and unique ideas. Adam Langer's "Crossing California" fits into the last category.

Many other reviewers have sung the praises of this work and given a synopsis of its plot and characters. I would like, therefore, to limit myself to ticking off what I think are the work's most innovative aspects.

First of all, this is a text that reminds me of what happens when a jeweler pops off the back of a Swiss pocket watch: you can see all the different gears and levers and wheels that work separately but ultimately coordinate themselves to produce a single mechanical movement. In much the same way, Langer's use of language creates a vast, dense, energetic panorama of people and events, but all of these diverse elements come together to form a clear, linear narrative. "Crossing California" boasts a crowded cast of characters--each of whom is well-drawn and distinct from the others. Even the tertiary personages who pop up only for a few lines add to the text's tone and motion. Simultaneously, each of the main characters has his or her own agenda, and pursues it in the deliciously detailed topography of the Rogers Park section of Chicago.

Langer's sense of humor must be described as a cornucopia. There's subtle humor, make-you-blush humor, laugh-right-away funny stuff, and laugh-the-next-day-when-you-finally-get-it funny stuff. All mixed together. In addition, Langer makes the narrator funny, but also succeeds at making the characters themselves funny independent of the narrator, on their own and when they interact with other characters. (Hopefully that explanation makes sense. If not, just read the book and you'll know what I mean.)

Lastly, this is a really clever and bittersweet salute to the fizzling out of the 1970's and the jolting start of the 1980's. To Langer's credit, I don't think this book could be moved out of the Rogers Park neighborhood or moved ahead or back in time and still keep its integrity: the work is the perfect harmonization of a unique time, a unique place, a unique national and local mood, and a fascinating gaggle of characters.

All in all, a very rewarding read from a dynamic new voice.

Crossing California is a terrific read filled with wonderful and very funny characters. I will admit, it took me a while to get into the novel. It is a little slow at first and there is little to no actual dialogue, but mainly summaries of dialogue in long, paragraph form. The characters, however, were what ultimately won me over. They are all pretty amusing and you will see shades of yourself, and everyone you know, in many of them, which makes them somehow even funnier. The novel takes place in 1979-1981 Chicago and concerns several families living there whose lives overlap. Much happens in the novel, although there is no real plot moving the novel forward constantly, just a series of subplots, none more important than the other. I won't summarize the subplots here, others have done that more than adequately, but I will say this: Crossing California is a big funny novel about humanity, filled with warm and flawed characters you will grow to like, in spite of those flaws. If you are looking for a novel with one big story line and lots of dialogue, well, you won't like this one. If that's not important to you and if you enjoy novels with excellent, keenly observed characters, pick up Crossing California. It is a great read.

I'll wager many will buy this book thinking it's going to be about California. Not. It's set in Chicago. But I'll also wager that they won't regret their purchase. Adam Langer's book is epic in its sprawl and its sometimes insane attention to detail and the minutiae of his characters' lives, but it spans a period of only 2-3 years (1979 - 1981). Focusing primarily on the members of 3 families who live on one side or another of California Ave, the street that divides a Jewish neighborhood into those of the upper middle class from those of the mostly working class, the book allows us to see all aspects of that important time in America's 20th century through the eyes of a group of teenagers who come together, drift apart, and come together again in a different mix.
Really, really, really, really good.

I have to conceed that I have a large bias here, I grew up in Rogers Park (both East and West) in the late 70's and 80's - so I am intimately familiar with all the streets, shops, and locations that Langer refrences. Moving past the feelings of nostalgia that the author conjured in me, by simply referencing the hangouts of my youth - I did not grow up Jewish - and so while the location is familiar the characters are not... and this is a fantastic book about characters and their development. Using the time constraint of the Hostage crisis to frame his story line, Langer tells the stories of a variety of jr. high / high school kids and their parents that are all in various states of transistion -- much like the country was in from the period of the late 70's into the early 80's.

Other reviewers have made note of the fact that they feel each of the characters seems a bit cliche or stereo typed, and while I think that on the surface some of their struggles seem stereotypical - I would argue no more so than the challenges we actually face when in the process of transistion ourselves. High School are years often times filled with inexplicable angst,fear, and longing - and the need to define ourselves or in some cases to defy our established roles... I thought it was a humorous, gentile, and well written story - no matter your background.

Langer has a beautiful storytelling style which is hard to capture in words. Suffice it say that you are in for some witty passages in which exchanges of throughts, words, and actions occur with no dialogue at all, and the style works. This book is poignant and I loved getting involved with the characters.

The book is not, as a first glance might indicate, about the West Coast. It is about people, a diverse mix of people with various backgrounds, destinites, quirks, and dreams, all growing up in Chicago in the late 70's on the different sides of California Avenue. The richness of these characters is what makes this book work. There's too much to sum up in a review, so if you're a fan of good fiction, I implore you to pick this book up and give it a try.

If you're a certain age (born between 1963 and 1968, give or take a few years), and raised in a big city, Crossing California has to be one of the most irresistible reads ever. The author, Adam Langer, has a steel-trap memory for what was and wasn't cool for 12- to 15-year olds in 1980-81, and for what these kids were DOING in those years. This was before abstinence pledges and "just say no."

The novel focuses on five teenagers and their parents who live in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, and beautifully captures how children's lives are ultimately unknowable to their parents. When Muley Scott Wills--a black teen in love with his best friend, 12-year-old Jill Wasserstrom--goes missing, his mother Deidre realizes only when she sets out to search for him that he has developed hobbies, habits, and relationships about which she knew nothing. Charlie Wasserstrom, widowed father of Jill and her older sister Michelle, hesitates to pursue a new relationship because he doesn't want to be a bad influence on his daughters, although it is apparent to the reader that Michelle, who lost her virginity at 14, is beyond such influences, and Jill, who reads Antonio Gramsci and Saul Alinsky in her spare time, couldn't care less.

The title refers to a street in West Rogers Park that divides the comfortable middle class from the striving working class. The Wasserstrom family, and Muley and his mother, live east of this divider at the start of the novel. Another family, the Rovners-parents Michael and Ellen, a radiologist and a psychologist, and children Lana and Larry-lives west of it. While 13-year-old Lana contemplates her pleasant home on the correct side of California with satisfaction, the Rovner marriage is actually falling apart.

One of the strengths of the novel is in its communication of misunderstandings. Because the narrator gets into each character's head, you eavesdrop on their (sometimes inaccurate) assessments of each other and themselves. Thus, you learn that while Ellen Rovner is secretly certain her husband is a latent homosexual and has been engaging in sex play with his best friend for years, Michael Rovner believes his wife just isn't interested in sex and is starting to see other women as his salvation.

This is a long and enjoyable read, brimming with plot and subplot and terrific characterizations. Highly recommended.

This book is not consistent. I enjoyed the beginning; by a third of the way through I was ready to put it down; two-thirds through I was enjoying it and did so until the disappointing end.

The novel follows a handful of Chicagoans who are tangentially related to each other. Very few are likeable. The ones with the most written about them seem to be the least likeable. There is really no plot line, per se, only the tracking of these lives from early winter of 1979 into 1980. There are no major awakenings or epiphanies - only the plodding of the characters.

Mr. Langer does, however, bring out all the self-centerness and narcissism of the early eighties. At times he nears the satirical with some of his character portrayals. This view is the best aspect of the book.

He also shows that there can be books written with Jewish characters set outside of New York City. There is a lot about the Jewish culture here. Perhaps were I a bit more familiar with that culture, more would have been understandable or I would have had more empathy at times.

This is a dense book with very little dialogue. Much of what is spoken is described rather than put in print, much as someone telling a story would relate a conversation. Unfortunately, in this novel that trick came off as cold and cynical rather than warm.

Cold and cynical are the adjectives most apt for the characters and their views on life. Both the youth and the adults seem to have lost their way and purpose in life - if the purpose is other than self-interest.

This was an interesting book - at times difficult to push through and at other times pulling the reader along into these characters lives. In all, I am glad I read it, but I did not find it nearly as good as Little Children, another book trying to capture the everyday lives of everyday people in an interesting light.

Adam Langer's "Crossing California" succeeds on so many levels, it is difficult to categorize its most significant achievement. This stunning coming-of-age novel set in Chicago during the late 1970s deftly captures the ambience of Jewish culture, the subterranean tensions of family dysfunction and the poignantly humorous travails of adolescents wrestling with issues of sexuality, friendship and identity. It is clear that Langer knows the terrain of his novel; written with extraordinary precision, the novel contains exquisitely detailed descriptive passages and absolutely credible inclusion of the vernacular of that time and place. Not only does Langer know his city, he loves his characters, investing each of his intriguing cast with an evident humanity. Their flaws are as endearing as their strengths, their foibles as compelling as their triumphs.

Each character in "Crossing California" embarks on a particular passage, a genuine crossing from one stage of life to another. The literary convention of spiritual quest is certainly not a new one, but Langer gives it a refreshing tweak because of its ubiquity. Adults and adolescents, major and minor characters alike, find themselves at pivotal moments in their lives, flailing away at the limits of their lives, stretching their imaginations or simply trying to understand their place in a time of enormous social change. Regardless of individual circumstance, the characters grow, and their transformation, depicted with laugh-out-loud piquancy, is spellbinding.

"Crossing California" explores the distinct but unexpectedly intersecting lives of two skewed Jewish families, the Rovners and the Wasserstroms. The Wasserstroms, struggling economically, experience the frustrations of unrequited hopes and embody the centrifugal forces ripping apart urban, ethnic families. Enigmatic, questioning and idealistic, Jill Wasserstrom battles the loneliness engendered by her mother's premature death with iconoclastic views and a fatalistic acceptance that much of what she hopes will never materialize. She is a sweet, ironic girl, who rebuffs her artistically-talented friend Muley's sincere, but awkward attempts at youthful romance. On the other hand, Jill's older sister, Michelle, is a complex hellion. Michelle tries on different personalities as often as she changes roles in her aspiration to become a professional actress. She swings wildly from one sexual escapade to another, from indifference to her studies to aspirations for acceptance at Yale. Her appetite for life is enormous. Barely surviving his two daughters is placid, predictable and pathetic Charlie Wasserstrom. Yet even befuddled Charlie, who desires nothing more than to be a dutiful father, will face personal transformation when an abrupt firing causes him to find a second chance in far more than employment.

The Rovners' surreal excesses distort their quest for the American Dream; they provide a painfully humorous twist to their frustrations and failures. Sexually-frustrated Larry Rovner cannot terminate his marriage to his frosty, sarcastic wife Ellen. Both are medical professionals, presumably dedicated to putting their patients' lives back together, but neither derives satisfaction from work and both harbor resentments about the sterility of life. Their daughter, Lana, is well on the path of becoming a Jewish American Princess. However, her penchant for kleptomania and obsessive devotion to achievement at any cost may well interfere with her goal. Her brother Larry is deeply devoted to his religion, sexual conquest and music, often confusing one for the other. He is not particularly competent at any of the above activities.

"Crossing California" is a laugh-out-loud read, and Adam Langer's observations about teen-age life, contemporary family dysfunction and Jewish identity shimmer with intelligence and insight. Above it all is the obvious love the author has for his characters. By investing their limitations with compassion and by making their misadventures larger than life, Langer ropes readers into the web of his characters' lives. It's a good place to be.

Anyone from Rogers Park will read this novel with the same goofy giddiness people feel when they see themselves on television. Langer couldn't have had the family car very often; his recall of neighborhood locales is so encyclopedic, he obviously spent hours.. days, even, walking everywhere. Eastern Syle Pizza, the Pinewood, Minky's, Lunt Beach, Warren Park when it was still a shuttered golf course in tax arrears! Langer's Rogers Park teens are so dead-on accurate anybody who was there will wonder when they knew him. Langer knows us so well it hardly seems fictional. Funny & smart - this one takes you back without the mess of actually going back. At the end of this book, a glossary is provided - helpful for non-Chicagoans, those born after 1970 and people reading it a hundred years from now- which they will.

Not being a fan of contemporary, popular fiction, this is not a book I would normally have selected. Instead it came to me, and in the stagnant time typical of February in Iceland, I read this book eagerly. Spanning a couple of years in the tail end of the 1970s to the early 1980s, Adam Langer ambitiously (but seemingly effortlessly) weaves together a seamless story, or collection of intersecting stories, brought together flawlessly by vivid characters. Langer proves immediately his expertise at bringing out the humanity in his characters, involving the reader intimately with the lives, triumphs, disappointments and doubts of the characters. The reader finds him/herself curious about the futures of the characters, wanting to know the outcome of their decisions, not wanting the story to end, even as it eventually does. The strength of this book lies in the truly individual, exact and unique nature of each character. Each comes to life on the page, urgently relatable, immediately identifiable... people we as readers have known in our lives or reflections of ourselves. It is a rare achievement to personify so many different characters on so many different levels and imbue them with the kind of humanity Langer has given them. I would like to say that I had a favorite character but each was so well-formed and well-written that even the characters I did not particularly like (those most flawed, for example) were certainly tangible. The realism in the book made it impossible to choose one character or plotline that was more gripping than another. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book for its remarkably realistic characters and for its faithful rendering of the time period.