Laughter on a Weekday Author:Louis Falstein This is a novel about a Russian Jewish family which is forced to leave Russia at the time of the revolution and flees accross Europe in hopes of finding a way to America.The first part of the book takes place in a small town in the Ukraine where the family has lived for generations and deals with the life there in all its many aspects. Then, it ... more »follows them accross Europe to Paris "the city of diamonda" and from there to America where they settle in Chicago. The rest of the book chronicles their dramatic assimilation into the American way of life, mainly through Raphael, the young son who is the hope of the family. We see his love of baseball, we see the pool-hall through his eyes and we watch him adapt to America in a series of humorous sketches which make up the rich tapestry of this book. The ability of the young to adapt to a totally new life, and the inability of the old and its resultant tragedy is an important part of this too. This is a novel about a period when the world was in the throes of upheaval and change, from the early part of the century (1917) through the thirties.« less