Published in 1917 by the founder and editor for 50 years of the Jewish Daily Forward, this looks at the American immigrant experience of the time for Eastern European Jews. A couple of ironies: Cahan, a life long socialist, made his hero a rags-to-riches businessman who despised socialism; Cahan’s m

This autobiographical novel charts the rise of David Levinksy, an immigrant to New York in the late 1880s. The novel is quite long, and it took a while to get through it, but it was well worth the read. The differences between David's life as a Talmud student in Russia and his life as an upcoming cl

This wonderful novel written as a first person narrative is the life story of a poor Russian boy who emigrates to America and becomes a multi millionaire. The story is told in complete detail, with a lamenting, nostalgic feel. It is well written and arresting, but rambles too much at times, which al

One schande after another! Actually quite gripping, I had been a bit nervous that there might be too much commerce, but instead I found the story of his rise in the needle trades as exciting as the chapters about talmud schools and infatuations with modern women. Cahan sees the hypocrisy in everyone

This book was interesting in showing the difficulties of having an Orthodox Jewish background in Russia, then immigrating to the U.S.A., then trying to figure out how to make money and survive economically while you are learning a new way of living in a different culture.

The aspects I disliked in th