End of the Line (Franzen)

     Jonathan Franzen End of the Line (New Yorker, 11 June 2001) The daughter of a railroad executive gets a summer job in the railroad office, filing signal circuit diagrams. She has a brief affair with an older man working there. The affair affects her less than it affects him; he wants her as much because she is daughter of his boss as for her youth. He and the girl’s father began at the same rank, but he reached his level pretty quickly, and has harboured a grudge against his former colleague ever since. The girl is shocked when he reveals the anger underlying his passion for her, but in the long run it doesn’t touch her. She is insulated from long term effects of his rage by her class and education, which is already equal to his, even though she is still a college student. And besides, she accepted his advances as much for pity, because she thought he needed sex, as for any any affection for him. Sad little study in American class structure. ***