generations

Every generation inherits the problems created by the ones before them, but no generation will inherit as many problems--as many crises--as the current generation of young people. From the devastations of climate change to the horrors of gun violence, from rampant transphobia to the widening wealth gap, from the lack of health care to the lack of housing, the challenges facing the next generation can feel insurmountable.

It's December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless -- unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem's sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who's been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate. Jonathan Franzen's novels are celebrated for their unforgettably vivid characters and for their keen-eyed take on contemporary America. Now, in Crossroads, Franzen ventures back into the past and explores the history of two generations. With characteristic humor and complexity, and with even greater warmth, he conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own. A tour de force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, its action largely unfolding on a single winter day, Crossroads is the story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis. Jonathan Franzen's gift for melding the small picture and the big picture has never been more dazzlingly evident.

"The year is 1873, and a buffalo hunter named Samson travels the Kansas plains. The year is 1975, and an adolescent girl named Bea walks those very same plains. The year is 2024 and, after a series of devastating storms, an engineer named Paul has left behind his suburban existence to build a floating city above the drowned streets that were once New Orleans. The year is 2073, and Moon has heard only stories of the blue planet--Earth, as they once called it, now succumbed entirely to water. A sweeping family epic, told over seven generations as America changes and so does its dream, [this book] is a novel that explores ancestry, legacy, motherhood, the trauma we inherit, and the power of connection in the face of our planet's imminent collapse"--Provided by publisher.

"Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakota people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato--where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they've inherited. On a winter's day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband's farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron--women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools"--Provided by publisher.

"Across three generations, the women of the Wise family hunt for contentment amid chaos of their own making. Evelyn set aside her career to marry, and motherhood never became her. Her daughter Laura discovers her husband Gabe expects too much of everyone in his life, especially his musician son. Grace has moved out from Laura and Gabe's house, but can't seem to live up to her potential--whatever that might be. As their story spans from World War II to the present, tethered in their small Midwestern town, they question: is a woman destined to repeat the mistakes of previous generations, or can she transcend the expectations of a place, and a time?"--OCLC.

"Millennials are much discussed and debated by the public, media, and government, with many competing ideas about the age group. Including those born between the mid-1980s and early 2000s, the generation is sometimes seen as entitled and lacking in work ethic, while others feel they have proven themselves as innovative and forward thinking ... In this book, arguments about millennials written by experts, researchers, politicians, and others will be laid out side by side so that students can form their own opinions not only about this critical generation, but about how society confronts change and generational differences"--Provided by publisher.

"As improvements have health care have made it possible for more people to live longer, healthier lives, grandparents have become increasingly important to the family structure. This book looks at the various ways that multiple generations can challenge but also enrich a familys life"--Amazon.com.