Class

On the surface, Karen Kipple has much to be content about. But despite her job as a fund-raiser at a nonprofit in New York, a spacious condo that she and her hardworking husband own thanks to some inherited money, and a bright third-grade daughter, Ruby, Karen isn’t exactly happy. At first, it seems clear that her dissatisfaction stems from her insistence on white-liberal perfection: avoidance of artificial chemicals in foods, commendable work, and Ruby’s attendance at a racially diverse neighborhood school, Constance C. Betts Elementary. But when a classmate of Ruby’s transfers out of Betts to a school with mostly privileged white students, Karen’s ideals begin to crack. Karen duplicitously moves Ruby to the wealthier school, launches an affair with a billionaire donor, and breaks the law in what she describes as “the most selfless act of her nonprofit career.” The story is uncomfortable and excellently handled by Rosenfeld (I’m So Happy for You); it invites questions about faithfulness and philanthropy, one’s obligation to those less fortunate, and what it means to be middle-class in an unequal society. Agent: Maria Massie, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. (Jan.)