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Gershon Groysekanatsky, Russell Carrow and Dalton Dalwymple-Delacourt are three young men who are starting their new lives as college freshmen at Llenroc University in upstate New York. They come from very different social classes, ethnic groups and religious backgrounds. Gershon is the son of a poor struggling Jewish shoe salesman whose grandmother escaped the pogroms of Tsarist Russia and dreams of rising above his origins to become a doctor. Russell, on the other hand, is also Jewish but born to a very wealthy senior partner at a Wall Street law firm. His dream is to become a brother in Sigma Chi, a very elite WASP fraternity on campus. Dalton is a Mayflower descendant and a scion of the WASP elite. Unfortunately, tragedy interferes with his smooth ride into the upper- class echelons of Llenroc. Class Conflicts is the story of these young men's lives, both before and while they are at Llenroc University. The desire for social acceptance and the role that money, ethnicity, religion and lineage play in our society overwhelm their experiences at college and prevent them from concentrating on what college is really all about; learning and experiencing new people and ideas in order to broaden their horizons for the real world. Class Conflicts also looks very closely at the issue of anti-Semitism, especially how anti-Semitism acts as a social excluding force made more potent when combined with social class discrimination. The novel opens in Tsarist Russia with the Groysekanatsky family celebrating a wedding, only to find that they are facing a pogrom which soon would drive them from their home. In the turn of the 20th century New York City, the Groysekanatskys hoped to make a better life, but again encounter prejudice that undermine their ability to adjust to their new American homeland. Social exclusion based on anti-Semitism is a major theme of the novel as Gershon Groysekanatsky, Russell Carrow and Russell's father Raymond discover as they navigate the complex world of American private schools and universities. While the characters and theme involve American Jews and their relationship with the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite, social exclusion could be an issue between many other groups in the United States as well. Class Conflicts' unsettling conclusion demonstrates how exhausting and upsetting it is for Americans to have to endure the unpleasant combination of both social class discrimination as well as discrimination based on ethnicity and religion, in order to rise in a nation that often prides itself to be relatively free of such distinctions as barriers to socio-economic betterment.Howard Schwartz
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