Rating: 
Summary: west rogers paradise
Review: Now that I've read the book from the library, I will buy it to own. It is almost perfect. From the perfect late-70's "carcoat" picture on the front cover to everyone always getting high (wasted, I guess). It captures that time. I think it captures that place, too--I moved away in 1973 so things hadn't changed to that intermediate point yet (switching from people leaving for Skokie to leaving for Buffalo Grove). The only thing I really didn't get (and this wouldn't matter if you didn't live in West Rogers Park), is the title. I don't remember California really being a social divide. These days it's an ethnic divide (east of california Devon's honorary street name is "gandhi" and to the west it is "golda meir") but back then, with the Jews on both sides, I never saw a class divide.
Rating:
Summary: unforgetable characters
Review: The structure of this book reminded me of Catch 22. It has short chapters, each told from the point of view of a central character, and the time covers the period from the taking of the hostages to the beginning of the Reagan presidency. Each character is hysterical (and somewhat screwy). And it is not always clear how they will resolve their various hangups. How, for example, will the not-very-good putative lead singer/songwriter of a Zionist rock band ever find a girlfriend? And how will his sister ever manage to have an orgy? And when will the Marxist radical Jill Waserstrom stop blowing off the boy who makes her the most beautiful movies imaginable?I completely disagree with the negative reviews posted here and in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The book is full of dialogue, some quite poignant. There are lots of moments narrated in real time. And I loved the writing -- lively, engaging, and truly funny in a way like nothing I've read since Catch 22. I couldn't put the book down for two days. I think it's genius.
Rating: 
Summary: A Minor Correction
Review: There was a moment, reading this "breakout book of 2004," when I put it down next to me and said out loud, to no one, "I really hate these people. They're despicable." And many of the characters in Langer's first novel seem, at first, to be truly terrible people. But by the end, I felt sympathy for, or even empathy with, nearly all of them.
This is a "big" novel, in the vein of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, tying a set of characters to a larger set of circumstances. (It's not as long as Franzen's "big" book, though--at 420 pages, with smooth writing, it coasts by quickly.) Langer's framework is more defined than Franzen's; he fits the action of his novel into the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran, ending it on the day Ronald Reagan took office. In those 444 days, the characters all experience major events, including a move from one part of a Jewish neighborhood to another, better one--or out of the neighborhood altogether. The characters are representatives of three tiers of a microcosm for society as a whole, each struggling to advance. Married doctors struggle to send their kids to the right schools and find happiness in a worn-out marriage; a widower struggles to maintain a middle-class lifestyle for his motherless daughters; and a single mother and her son attempt to take care of one another. (In one of the novel's most touching subplots, the son does odd jobs to accumulate enough money to send his mom back to college so she can fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher.)
Like Corrections, though, this novel often inspires antipathy for its characters and rueful thoughts about the realistic situations that transpire. It examines the impact of psychology, divorce, religion, capitalism, and even pornography on a culture, doing so at first through the eyes of the children but eventually giving the adults and their needs and wants a fair share of attention as well.
This is not a perfect novel; in places it feels over-written, and at times Langer would be better served by getting out of the way of his characters rather than narrating their conversations. The ending, while it ties things together neatly, does seem to rely on one coincidence too many to deliver the requisite warm feelings for all the characters. Still, this is a dynamite first novel, broad in scope and laser-focused on the feelings and changes of its characters and, by extension, a nation in transition. I look forward to good things from Adam Langer.
Rating:
Summary: The novel as chicken soup
Review: This is a book I just about could not put down: handy, since I read it while home suffering from a winter chest complaint and I needed something to speed my recovery.It is obvious the author knows his subject very well: there is a lot to know in a Jewish suburb! He is very deft in his character depiction: Muley, as much the hero of the novel as anyone else, is more suggested than depicted. A similar light touch illumines his (eventual) friend, Jill. Her father, likewise, is a very real character even if he is often a passive participant in the events described. I was left hoping to learn more one day about Muley and Jill and Mr Langer earns my compliments for his splendid addition to my fiction collection. I can think of dozens of people, Jewish and non Jewish, who will love this as much as I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant???
Review: This is just a terrible book...nothing good to say about any of the characters with the possible exception of Muley. This book is depressing and shallow. Or, if you take it seriously, it is still depressing with a low opinion of life and the future. I realize this is not the prevailing opinion, but someone needs to say it. Sorry, L.C. Powell
Rating:
Summary: Great Read...
Review: To me, the mark of a good novel is that when I'm finished reading, I want to pick up the phone, call the author, and say, "Write more about these characters!". And, that's what I'd like to do here. Langer writes about quirky, interesting, people in a little visited time, the late '70's and early '80's. The book is set on the North Side of Chicago. The ten or so main characters intersect in wonderful and strange ways. Often a supporting name will pop up in a different mix than orginally set. There's very little plot to "Crossing", but that doesn't matter. So, Mr Langer, pleae write a second novel and let us know what happens! PS - I'll never quite use the word "which" the same way again, after reading this book!
Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: With quirky and interesting characters, and a setting in the 70s and 80s, I was prepared to love the novel . . . and I did. Not since Jackson McCrae's THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD or the book YOU REMIND ME OF ME have I so enjoyed a book. The title, like most great books, is somewhat misleading as it's not about the state of California. That said, I was riveted throughout this stellar little gem and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in good writing. CROSSING CALIFORNIA is a keeper.
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