This novel was thought-provoking and often frustrating, The ideas explored were interesting, but for me, something was missing., Maybe the characters lacked depth, maybe the plot seemed disconnected... I kept waiting for something, but that something never emerged.

I tried, I really tried but I couldn't finish this book. I couldn't connect with the characters.

I requested this novel back in November 2016, when the world felt like it was falling in on my head. The issues brought up by this novel neither started nor ended around this time period, but the awareness about such issues seems to have increased ever since certain people moved into certain historical homes in Washington D.C.

This novel, a satire of social politics, really seems to grasp the liberal view. Karen, the main character, is what I consider a typical PTA mom: one who is so wrapped up in her ideals that she's become them. She is the picture of these ideals, living them to the letter every day without fail.

Karen is an over-exaggerated version of a liberal woman: sending her daughter to a poorly ranked school so that Ruby (her daughter) can integrate with children of various ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds; buys overpriced organic locally sourced food; worries about climate change. Not that these are things that one can do if they like, but take them done at a reasonable level and crank that up a notch.

Class has been widely recommended as a book club book and I certainly see why. In addition to characters that are certain to elicit quite a few emotions, the issues that are brought up will be sure to provoke discussion. There are the matters of Karen's privilege, her views of diversity and what that means to her family, etc. I'd expect things to get heated, not only due to talking about Karen and her actions when Ruby, her daughter, starts to encounter trouble at school, when Karen herself finds her views at odds with the actual world around her, but because it might encourage people to consider their own views.

The writing was good. It was tough to read at times, but I put that down to it being a good characterization of insufferable people than bad writing.

I'd recommend picking this book up for a book club night, bring a good drink, and lots of popcorn. The comments are sure to fly.

Satire:
noun
1.
the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing,or
deriding vice, folly, etc.
2.
a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are
held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.


The book is described as satirical novel about a mother whose life spirals out of control when she's forced to rethink her bleeding heart liberal ideals. I’ve been mulling that over, and I'm undecided as to whether or not I would personally classify the book as satire. I do believe the book hits close to home to the way many are feeling these days. If you are a white person, in an urban area, you may very well understand how confusing life has become. We live in a world where racial tensions are high. Many people are just trying to get along, but they feel as if in such a politically correct environment, with so many people so easily offended and ready to cast blame on anyone who looks or even thinks differently, it’s hard to know how to have a good relationship with each other. The author does a very nice job of reaching into the doubts and insecurities of a white woman from a middle class family who outwardly seems to care and wants to do what’s right. Throughout the book, we are privy to her thoughts.

However, I'm also not so sure I'd consider Karen to be a bleeding heart liberal. My feelings about her veered drastically from sympathy to irritation. At times, I did not like her at all. Deep down, I'm not so sure she was completely sold out on the idea of feeling excessively sympathetic to the plight of the disadvantaged. Her actions often spoke louder than the words she speaks to others. She cares very much about having her daughter around other white children. She also doesn’t like how the man being thrown out of his apartment plays his kind of music all the time, she doesn’t like his Pit Bull. So much of the book is like that: things she doesn’t like that other ethnicities do, but when the rubber hits the road, she knows that they have the right to be cared for and treated fairly; however, wouldn't she rather do that from a distance and not have it be her whole world?

She seemed to want to control her life and the lives of those around her; her husband and others in the book behaved much the same way with a "my way or the highway" kind of attitude. There was the head volunteer at the school where Karen's daughter, Ruby, started out who insisted on having things done her way. Karen's husband, worked late hours, didn't seem to to care about his wife's opinions and was not very helpful with their daughter--his wife did almost everything for her, and yet he was angry with his wife for going ahead with a decision about their child that he wasn't on board with. There was also a mix of people, including Karen, who would drop friends in a heartbeat over a difference of opinion. So much of this is actually how people behave.

Maybe the satire is in how the author threw all this together in one book? I don't know. I don't typically read books labeled satire. I'm sure, however, that if you do pick this up, you will probably notice the conflicting opinions about race in your own heart, and the world around you. Therefore, I think it is well worth reading.

Although I was intrigued by the premise of this book, I was unable to get past the first few chapters. I did not enjoy the author's narrative style and had trouble getting into the flow of the story.

Rosenfeld has managed to create a book that is an extremely enjoyable read, while simultaneously exploring the uneasy relationship between embracing diversity in theory and in practice. Highly recommend.

Lucinda Rosenfeld's CLASS features New York, Karen Kipple as she struggles to balance the demands of motherhood and career, always convinced that she was shortchanging one or the other. A world of contradictions.

Married for ten years and for the last five Karen had been the director of development for a small non-profit devoted to tackling childhood hunger in the US. For the past two years, she had been trying to write an op-ed which she hoped one day to publish in a major newspaper, about the relationship between nutrition and school readiness.

Matt, her husband is also a career activist in the nonprofit sector and she is always worried about Ruby, her eight-year-old daughter’s education. She encourages her former lawyer husband to quit his job and work with low-income people to assist their housing needs.

Karen had enrolled her daughter at Betts, aware that it lacked the reputation for academic excellence of other schools nearby, but Ruby would be exposed to children who were less privileged than herself. Even though the white population of the school hovered around 25%. Being in the minority in what she had chosen. However, was he sacrificing her education? Diversity or inferior education?

She had always aspired to a life of making a difference and helping those less fortunate than herself. She tried to live in accordance with the politics and principals, which of course included the notion that public education was a force for good and that without racially and economically integrated school, an equal opportunity couldn’t exist.

Ruby was smart and a voracious reading and life should be good. Karen, an advocate for non-food additives and chemicals as well as diversity. She has a nice condo, hubby, and daughter, Karen’s life seemed to be good in New York; however, she is unhappy.

“Karen’s complex and contradictory relationship to eating had also grown more in the last few years, along with weight, teeth, and marriage—somehow become a dividing line between the social classes with the Earth Day — esque ideals of the 1960s having acquired snob appeal, and the well-off and well-educated increasingly buying “natural” and “fresh” and casting aspersions on those who didn’t.”

Then when a classmate of Ruby’s transfers out of Betts to a more privileged school of white students, all of Karen’s earlier thoughts and commitments, quickly vanished. Her husband wants a divorce because she enrolled Ruby in a new school without telling him.

Following the lead, she moves Ruby and then begins an affair with a rich guy, Clay, among other things. More lies. Her emotions are all over the board. Karen is torn between social classes, seeing the poor living in shelters and the rich and their superficial ways. Hypocrisy. Guilt.

She was capable of paying hundreds of dollars for an espresso machine from Italy, Karen had a deeply ingrained cheap streak as well, which caused her to do things like go to the library and photocopy the crossword puzzle from the Sunday paper rather than pay for a subscription.

Rosenfeld kicks butt and puts it all out there. With keen insights, raw honesty, a brutal portrayal ---the truth of our unequal society in urban America. With humor and highly-charged topics, the author hits the bull's eye, with CLASS.

I especially enjoyed the wide range of topics from privilege, class, identity, entitlement, education, politics, domestic, parenting, marriage, social economics, philanthropy—to ethical dilemmas, the author does not miss a beat in this delightful satire.

A tale of one woman’s struggle between the madness of liberal and reality. The lesson liberals need to learn is that despite their arrogance, they do not have the power to alter reality. From liberals to progressive—is equality among human race the exception, and inequality the norm?

Much to like here whether you are a modern-day urban parent, grandparent, or single. Smart, witty, engaging, absorbing, and thought-provoking! The hardcover was stunning with a perfect fitting cover. An ideal choice for book clubs and further discussions.

A special thank you to Little Brown & Co., Goodreads Giveaway, and NetGalley for a complimentary reading copy, in exchange for an honest review.

JDCMustReadBooks

Kindergarten parent, Karen Kessler, is conflicted. She's torn between her desire to get the best education for her daughter Ruby and her desire to make a political stand about the value of diversity. She married a man who values his ideological high road over comfort, but she is drawn to a man who is unapologetic about his pursuit of the good life. She believes herself to be on the side of the downtrodden and troubled, but she is willing to lie and cheat to aid them. Rosenfeld places her in one quandry of her own making after another, providing a satirical look at the motivation of inner city, middle class, do-gooders.

As it turns out, however, rather than causing the reader to think about assumptions about class, Rosenfeld mainly provides a rather silly superficial plot starring an unbelievably dimwitted character. Faced with any choice, Karen Kessler makes the wrong one. There is no depth to her, or any other character, which left me not only with no understanding of why she would act the way she does, but also with very little interest in why. There seems to be little point to the book, other than perhaps that one can get away with just about anything as long as one's underlying intentions are good.

I don't mind an entertaining quick read occasionally to mix things up, but the lack of characterization made this book a bit of a slog. I found it just simply too lightweight.

A sharp satire about a well-meaning and entitled white woman who ends up betraying her principles in order to get her only daughter into a better (read whiter and more affluent) neighborhood public school. Yes, I wanted to slap Karen (often), but she does learn --some-- lessons. Overall, an enjoyable, pointed take on white upper-middle-class liberal parenting and its hypocrisies.

I had a little trouble with the satire in this book. I just didn't find it that funny. It may be that you need to be more "in" the environment that was being satired to appreciate it. I think, too, that in light of our current political situation, those of us who consider ourselves liberal are having a hard time finding anything to laugh about. It isn't this book's fault that the timing is off, but I think that this is not the moment for gentle laughter at earnest, unlikeable, liberal protagonists.

I had a hard time getting into this book. I am a fan of Lucinda Rosenfeld's novels but this one seemed off I thought I was reading an episode of Girls. I just simply couldn't connect and was disappoint in a novel I was so looking forward to.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Lucinda was able to delve into many difficult complex issues in a very light-hearted manner. I highly recommend this book as a book club selection. I think it would produce much discussion..

I absolutely loved this book. I felt that in some ways it probably went to extremes in its descriptions of parents, schools and children but then again it's probably quite accurate in the lengths that some parents will go to in the name of the right school, neighborhood, education, and opportunities. Ideals that have guided an individual over a lifetime can be cast aside like yesterday's trash in the name of doing the 'right thing.'

Satire of being liberal mom in a wealthy neighborhood/school.

I may be the wrong audience for this book. It seemed forced. The idea of a satire focused on contradiction of liberal ideals is great, but this story and characters were not engaging.

Lucinda Rosenfeld takes a gentrified neighborhood like Park Slope, Brooklyn, and throws in the kitchen sink. Every character, even the children (please forgive me) are unlikable, many to the extreme. Class is about the division of socioeconomic classes in the public school system and with a play on words it is about whether an upper middle class person has any real class at all.
As a well known character on "The Housewives of New York" sings, "Money can't buy you class."

The main character is Karen, a mom of a third grader named Ruby and a fund raiser at a non-profit called Hungry Kids. Her husband, Matt, is trying to get an NGO for affordable housing started. They live in a zone that requires Ruby to be in an underperforming public school. The cliche about throwing stones and glass houses definitely applies here. None of us escape LR's shrewd view. It doesn't matter if you send your child to the neighborhood public school, find a way to slip them into a slightly better public school, a charter school, or fork over college level tuition for a private school. Parents are the bad guys here and I can see glimpses of myself when my daughter was so very young and I had yet to teach below the higher ed level. I definitely chose a "progressive" pre-school for her and would have been happy for her to stay there if we hadn't moved overseas for her kindergarten year.

Striving to provide the best possible choices for our children is what most of us do but in LR's world, it is done to the point of insanity and in some cases, we break the law to do it. The constant striving is part of a materialistic mind set where nothing is ever good enough. The culture wars are alive and well in Brooklyn and I'm sure in most places where affluent couples live these days.

This is satire that bites hard. It is worth the read, a fast one.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Little Brown and Company (publish date: January 10th 2017).

I find this book uncomfortable to read - I think this is down to the subject matter and the fact I found the main character unlikeable (but think I was supposed to). The story is one which I'm sure plays out in all countries - wanting to do the best for your child but not sure if the best really is.
I would recommend the book as I think it makes you question your own decisions and the reasons behind them - how ever difficult it is!

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Net Galley.

It is supposed to be a satire of a privileged urban professional struggling with her inner conflict about keeping her child in the local underfunded public school. There is also a dalliance with a billionaire and some absconding of PTA funds. None of it was very interesting.

This is my second "who cares" book in a row. I saw reviews of this book and the prior title, Pretty Little World, in Booklist. Both were given starred reviews and I think considered "High Demand" titles. My big take away is that I should not be getting my book recommendations from Booklist.