Crossing California is a book following the lives of several very different families in Chicago during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Each family is very different, in their views, in their activities, in their members. There are the troubled adolescents doing drugs and having sex. There are the parents, stuck in marriages they don’t want to be in. There are the kids, on the cusp of teenager-dome who have to learn how to act in a different world and what is important.
Each person has their own thoughts and feelings, each more important to themselves. But you also see the subtle ways in which their lives are connected, bounce off another’s, intersect.
At first each person is just a person to you, as he/she is to other characters, but then you learn about them. The side they hide from others, their fears and wishes. You find out the Jill Wasserstrom is more insecure than you think, after her mother’s death the end of the world seems inevitable. You see that Charlie Wasserstrom is not the fat, lazy, stupid man who didn’t go to college, but the man so kind he doesn’t belong in this world. You’ll find out that Michelle Wasserstrom is smarter than she appears to be, along with her own realization of that fact. You’ll find out how hard Muley Wills works, how smart he is, when others just view him as that “cool black 8th grader.” You’ll find out so much about other people, how they each have a tender side and where the truth and lies will get them.
This book was intensely sad at some points, hilarious in others. By the end of the book you’ll feel like you lived with the characters, you were in Chicago in the ‘70s, you can recognize each landmark. This book sucks you in each time you pick it up, bringing past lives into bright, clear focus.
Recommended to 16 and up