In this class we will read stories and novels about the 20^th- and early 21^st-century American family in all its permutations. We will look back at how American writers like Raymond Carver, James Baldwin and J.D. Salinger wrote about family life in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and then how Jeffrey Eugenides captured family in the Detroit Suburbs of the late 1970s and 80s, while Edward P. Jones's characters cobble family together in an inner city in crisis, and Jhumpa Lahiri's characters deal with family intimacy and loss on the cusp of the 21^st century. We will look at exceptionally close families, surrogate families, and families coming apart at the seams. Students will hone their skills as college level interpreters of literature, writing a close reading essay, a creative essay, an analysis and a compare/contrast.

Books will include: Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters by J.D. Salinger; The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri and TBA.

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