by Adam Langer Signed first edition. New.

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.

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.

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.

Other novels include:

The Washington Story (2005)

Ellington Boulevard (2008)

The Thieves of Manhattan (2010)

The Salinger Contract (2013) Published in 2004 by Riverhead, New York ISBN: 1573222747 Edition: First Edition, First Printing Binding: Hardcover Condition: New Dust Jacket included. Condition of Dust Jacket: new Comments: Description: 432 p. : map ; 24 cm.

LCCN: 2003066719

alk. paper Signed Copy