<p>Family Matters examines the disjunct between upward-mobile successful technocrats living in viable suburban comfort and their nearby blue-collar counterparts many haunted by a sense of personal insignificance as lifelong jobs are eliminated or disappear altogether. From computer-savvy Barry Byrnes forced into early retirement to union leaders Jamie McClintock and Paul Doran Struggling to save a century-old industry in the heart of the picturesque Chesapeake Bay area we collide against mutually opposed economic and family concerns. The effect is a profound cultural fracture the central concern of the novel. </p>