Bread Givers: A Novel

This masterwork of American immigrant literature is set in the 1920s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and tells the story of Sara Smolinsky, the youngest daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, who rebels against her father's rigid conception of Jewish womanhood. Sarah's struggle towards independence and self-fulfillment resonates with a passion all can share. Beautifully redesigned page for page with the previous editions, Bread Givers is an essential historical work with enduring relevance. 16 b/w photographs.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Good, 2008-09-25
I read this book for my English class in college. It helped me know more about American culture in the early of 20th century


1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Not bad for the dreaded "required reading"!, 2006-11-10
This book was required reading for my history class, but it turned out to be a pretty fast and fun read. Though branded as a novel, this book reads very much like a turn-of-the-century (20th) biography of a young immigrant woman.


0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

An Outstanding Book with Several Flaws, 2006-08-10
This book vividly portrays the culture clashes that arise when a parent remains devoted to Old World traditions and beliefs and a rebellious daughter sets out to find her own way in America. Reb Smolinsky, the family patriarch, is chronically unemployed and content to be supported by his wife and children while he spends his time in meditation and study of his beloved Torah. Sara's three older sisters find romance, but each in turn finds her chances at marriage and happiness sabotaged by their dictatorial father. Reb Smolinsky, insisting he knows best for his daughters, pairs them up instead with men they can't possibly love or be happy with. Sara decides to rebel before history repeats itself in her life, and in the face of horrendous condemnation and taunting by her father, leaves home to support herself and pursue a dream of becoming a teacher.

This is a fine story, which should have been written in third person narrative, considering the private conversations that occur in the early part of the book. Reb Smolinsky seems a bit exaggerated, and his oft-repeated citings of the Torah that say a woman without a man is less than nothing are not substantiated with book, chapter, and verse. One has to wonder, does the Torah really say such things? I tried to find proof of this, but could not find any. Also, some loose ends are left unresolved at the story's end, particularly the plot complication that ensues when Reb Smolinsky buys a grocery store in Elizabeth, New Jersey, only to find himself the victim of a clever swindle. Anyone who is only somewhat familiar with the history of the Lower East Side and the lives of early twentieth century immigrants will be left wondering if life was really this fraught with conflict, despair, and misery for daughters of Jewish rabbis unable to leave their Old World ways behind. How plausible is this story? What can we really learn from it? It is a book worth reading, nevertheless, although further reading and study will probably be needed to avoid being confused by the situations Ms. Yezierska has presented.


2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Awesome book, 2006-07-21
I read this book for a college English class many years ago. I just finished reading it again for about the 10th time. This book is just truely mesmorizing and captivating. You don't have to Jewish or an immigrant or a female struggling - this book is for anyone that is willing to let their mind enter a time where we have no idea what it was like first hand and to go off on a jouney. Matter of fact, all her books are wonderful as I've read them all, but Bread Givers is still my favorite. Sorry I'm not offering a critique of the book, I just simply love it and want to share it with everyone.


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

"All pioneers have to get hard to survive.", 2006-03-16
Anzia Yezierska's "Bread Givers" is, in a sense, two overlapping stories. The first half of the book is the melodramatic tale of an impoverished Jewish immigrant family living in the New York ghetto, a family suffering under the tyrannical and hypocritical piousness of the father. At times the foolishness and ineptitude of the father is almost comic, but the suffering inflicted on his family is harrowingly poignant. The second half is a psychologically and sociologically astute feminist coming-of-age tale, as the youngest daughter breaks from her family to re-define herself as an "Americanerin," leaving for college and eventually becoming a teacher in her old neighborhood. The broader strokes of the novel's opening give way to provocative considerations of the difficulties inherent in the narrator's at times ambivalent desires for assimilation within an alien culture and for a self-respecting independence from her own patriarchal family.

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