THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

The classic novel, “Bread Givers”, reveals the hardships Jewish immigrants faced in America.   The novel, though melodramatic is style, juxtaposes religion and money, capitalism and socialism, the old country and the new country, greed and temperance, education and marriage, men and women, and, the powerful and the powerless.

Anzia Yezierska, born in Poland, during the late 1870’s or early 1880’s, emigrated to the U.S. with her family in 1890.  Her father, as was expected of a Torah Scholar, did not work.  He believed, as was the norm for his time, that girls had little need of an education.

As in the novel, the author pursued a college education, attended the Teacher’s College at Colombia University and taught elementary school for a few years.  Sometime later, the author began writing fiction, short stories of immigrants.  The author published several works including “Salome of the Tenements”, in 1922, “Children of Loneliness”, in 1923 and “Arrogant Beggar”, in 1927 .  The author’s works focused on immigrants and women’s causes.  Anzia Yezierska was married twice and had one daughter, Louise, whom she allowed her husband to raise as she preferred an independent life.  The author died in 1970, in Canada.

 

The Story: 

Sara Smolinsky, the youngest of four daughters, resides with her family in squalor on Hester Street, in the Lower East Side of New York City, Manhattan.  Sara witnesses the drudgery of her mother’s daily life as she struggles to support and feed her husband and children as Sara’s father, a Torah Scholar, is committed to a life of study.  Sara watches as her father ruins the chances for her sister’s betrothals.  Unwilling to lead the life of her mother or sisters, Sara begins to make plans of her own.

 

The title of the book, “Bread Givers” refers to men, as men are assumed to be responsible for their families.