A Brief History of Kate Parker

A Brief History of Kate Parker is the story of a woman in search of tranquility and belonging. The reader follows the life of an ordinary American woman, Kate Parker, from her high-school years to her late twenties. Originally from Ohio, her prestigious eastern college completes her transformation into a provisional member of the upper middle class, though her status is menaced by an unsuccessful marriage and her limited income as a public-school teacher. A symposium given by a wealthy financier who has taken an improbable interest in public education leads to her world being irrevocably altered, but to what degree?

A Brief History Of Kate Parker follows the life of an American woman between the ages of 18 and 28. 

Originally from the middle class in an overlooked part of the country, through effort and ambition Kate Parker is able to attend a prestigious college in the east, where she meets the person who becomes her closest lifelong friend, Katie Leung.

Kate Parker is drawn to Katie Leung, a child of immigrants, as, regardless of their academic readiness, they are both bewildered when faced with the daunting cultural advantages of their classmates.

College completes Kate Parker’s transformation into a provisional member of the upper middle class, though her modest income as a public school teacher in New York forces her to the margins of the city.

She eventually meets a man named Gardner Traxler, whose superficial attractiveness masks a lukewarm character.  After the birth of their son, Marlow, Gardner demonstrates his lack of commitment to the union. 

Kate is successful in her teaching career, but is conscious all the while of her outsider status.  She settles uneasily into her life with Marlow in an apartment in Midwood, Brooklyn. 

Kate Parker’s principal, sensing Kate’s level of sophistication, sends her to a symposium led by a semi-retired speculative financier named Hugh Worth who has taken an improbable but sincere interest in education reform.  Just as improbably, Worth takes a romantic interest in Kate Parker.  After a little hesitation, Kate succumbs to the attractions of Worth, and her life is transformed, to be sure.  But to what degree?

Daniel Schorr lives in Brooklyn, NY, and has been a public-school educator for over thirty years. A Brief History of Kate Parker is his first novel.

The author graduated from Oberlin College with a History degree, and is currently a Master's degree candidate at the Institute of French Studies, New York University.  He is now working on his next novel, Caje Anderson.