Cara Hoffman's work enacts George Orwell's imperative to "pay attention to the obvious" (an idea that several sympathetic characters repeat in her 2011 novel "So Much Pretty"), probing aspects of twenty-first century life in the United States that have become so accepted as to be unremarkable, such as epidemic levels of violence against women, unchecked corporate assaults upon ecologically fragile systems, and the unrelenting pursuit of military campaigns in oil-rich nations. Hoffman's narrative, at once fast-paced and deeply engaged with ethical and ideological concerns, thus explores many of the most pressing issues of twenty-first century America, including the exploitation of women's bodies as a form of entertainment, the epidemic of violence against women and its under-prosecution, the cultural glorification of vigilante justice, and the realities of juvenile mass-murder. In "Be Safe I Love You," Hoffman revisits the intersections of class, gender, and violence, but in this novel, Hoffman traces a female veteran's attempts to reintegrate into civilian life after serving in Iraq. In both "Be Safe I Love You" and "So Much Pretty," young women seek to survive--and even to thrive--in a world rigged against them. In addition to her two novels, Hoffman writes and speaks on feminist issues, regularly contributing to the Women's Media Center "Women Under Siege" project. She teaches at Bronx Community College in New York City. The author sat down with Cara Hoffman to discuss her work, the joys of teaching community college, the persistence of class inequalities and misunderstandings, and the roots and ubiquity of violence.