I enjoyed reading this book. The story really comes alive with the author's descriptions.
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First published in 1925, this is the clear-voiced expression of a young woman's struggle to free herself from the arbitrary strictures of Jewish immigrant society and from the "woman's role" assigned to her by men.
good read
This book is an excellent view into radical Jewish Immigrants at the turn of the century in America. It is heart wrenching and hopeful at the same time and can be very frustrating to the reader. It makes you want to finish the book to see what actually happens to everyone.
As the granddaughter of Eastern European immigrants and the daughter of an intelligent woman with drive who broke away to get a college education in 1933, I found this story gave me a deeper understanding of both my mother and my roots. My family was not Jewish and did not live in New York, but there's so much here in the immigrants' struggle that transcends those details. In fact, there's plenty in Sara Smolinsky's refusal to bow to her father's demands and in her struggle to reconcile her dreams with her fears that transcends the even the immigrant experience and offers universal appeal.