Helpful Score: 1
An absolutely hidden classic. A brilliant look at the immigrants life in turn of the century New York.
This is not a great novel; in fact it is quite tedious in several places. It takes some time to adapt to the English patois of the immigrant Italian. Also, unless you can abide the overtly Roman Catholic dialog, this is not a book for you. The story concerns the immigrant bricklayers who build New York's skyscrapers. As such, the author probes the attitudes of investors versus cheap labor in much the way that Upton Sinclair approached the abuses in the food packaging industry (The Jungle), coal mining (King Coal), and finance (King Midas). In this the investors and their minions are allowed manslaughter with impunity.
