East Side Story: A Novel

East Side Story: A Novel
Average customer rating:

A Family Saga Somewhat Fictionalized.

A VERY REWARDING READ

Small Gem of a book.

Perfect example of the genre

Informative yet not completely satisfying.

East Side Story: A Novel
Louis Auchincloss
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Auchincloss, Louis | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0618452443

Book Description

"Louis Auchincloss has an enveloping story to tell and a perfect, understated knowledge of those who inhabit it," said the New York Times of The Scarlet Letters. The same can be said of Auchincloss's new novel, a tour de force that charts the rise of one uncommon family in America's grand city. How did the families who live on Manhattan's Upper East Side get to where they are today? As much a penetrating social history as it is engaging fiction, East Side Story tells of the Carnochans, a family whose Scottish forebears establish themselves in New York's textile business during the Civil War. From there they quickly move on to seize prominent positions in the country's top schools and Manhattan's elite firms. As the novel unfolds, family members across the generations recount their stories, illuminating lives steeped in both good fortune and moral jeopardy. From women who outsmart their foolish husbands, to ambitious lawyers who protect the Carnochan name, to the family's artists and writers, all weigh the question that infuses so much of Auchincloss's fiction: what makes for a meaningful life in a family that has so much? In its starred review, Kirkus Reviews hails Auchincloss for being "once again the master of his craft." East Side Story is both a loving and wicked look at New York's own as only this sublime master of manners can provide.

Customer Reviews:

A Family Saga Somewhat Fictionalized........2005-10-06

This novel based on an actual family portrays the wealthy, privileged families on Manhattan's Upper East Side. He traces the Carnochan clan in American; the first, David, came to New York in 1829 from Glasgow, Scotland "to establish a branch of the family's successful thread business" and thrived during the Civil War. David's youngest son, Peter was a Civil War hero. David died in 1869, after the war, and Peter's remembrances get the story started.

Four generations are traced, mostly men with names of Bruce, Gordon, Maime, Ronny and Pierre. Some women, Louisa, Estelle, plus Eliza and Alida who married into the Carnochan family. By the twentieth century, the'd become lawyers, investment (stocks and bonds), all reputable high class occupations. In 1918, Pierre went to Harvard and on to Wall Street. "A wife can be a great asset, or a great liability." This was the world of debutantes. His cousin went to Yale and became a lawyer with his family's firm. They were a close knit group.

Louisa (called LouLou) was born in 1890 and died in 1955. She'd been a nurse who wished she could have gone on to be a doctor. Her older sister, a dear little thing, Betty, was the "beauty" of the family.

As we saw in the movie, 'West Side Story,' the gangs and lower classes were on opposite ends of town, as is the case with Knoxville today, only to the contrary -- the wealthy live out West of town with the gangs in the east and north. In Chicago, wealth moved North and left the Southside to ethnic groups around the University area. Older houses with walk-up apartments, cheaper one on the top, abound and Geoff sublet a top floor with a multiple, changing "boarders" as time went by.

Louis Auchincloss came from the upper crust and was declared a "living landmark" in 2000. His portrait on inside of back cover is by Cornelia Foss. He has written a slew of novels (60+), his first in 1947, THE INDIFFERENT CHILDREN, and a few non-fiction. From the list of many, these titles appealed to me: THE RECTOR OF JUSTIN (which I own), THE CAT AND THE KING, TALES OF MANHATTAN, and MANHATTAN MONOLOGUES. Non-fiction includes RICHELIEU and THE VANDERBILT ERA. The front portrait is deceiving as she is not a member of the Carnochan clan.

A VERY REWARDING READ.......2005-05-28

I must begin by stating that the world Mr. Achincloss writes of is as alien and as far removed from my world as a world created by a SiFi writer. It is far removed from my world culturely, geographically and philosophically. That is okay though. This little book is a true pearl. Each chapter is a wonderfully crafted sketch of various members of an elite New York family, starting just before the Civil War. Mr Auchincloss certainly has a wonderful command of the language and is certainly a true story teller. This is one of those books that you can read sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph and relish each and every one, almost as a separate entity. I found the writing style easy on the eye and mind and the entire flow of the book was true to itself from beginning to end. A wonderful read and I highly recommend. You probably will want to purchase this one as it deserves more than one read.

Small Gem of a book........2005-03-11

LIke many of Auchincloss books, ESS is a series of biographical sketches of members of the mythical Cancarhan (sp) clan, that function as individual short stories, but in their whole, make up a history of the clan (and are threaded together with references to other memebers). If you are interested in the subject: the old east coast establisment, Aunchincloss is 'authentic voice"
Auchincloss has the unique ability (like Edith Warton) to both know and be his subject: the now faded anglo-saxon elite (though with a calvinist scottish flavor). he is 90 now, and i hope he has one more book in him:: what happened to the wasp elite, who have definitley lost power and influence since the 60s.

Perfect example of the genre.......2005-03-08

Auchincloss continues to amaze me. When I saw this book in the "new fiction" stack at the library, I was astounded, since I would have thought the author would have either passed away, or at least stopped writing, a long long time ago. He began publishing his books almost 60 years ago. Although I share neither the class nor the education of this author, I have always found his books as beautiful as perfectly polished stones. They do not "live" in the way some fiction does, yet you can never forget his characters. This book is no different. It is a sort of chronicle of a family's history, starting in Scotland before the American Civil War, through immigration and settling here in the states. Each generation is seen and described by certain members of that generation. This could be very dry, yet it never fails to entertain. Golly, Mr. Auchincloss! I hope you are still serving up these books in another 20 years! Keep writing!

Informative yet not completely satisfying........2005-02-15

Yet how many books are.. completely satisfying that is?! Still, although the book did provide me with some insight of the lives of upper-class New Yorkers and how they achieved and kept their affluence, I did not find any of the little stories that come together to form the family history of the Carnochans, very engaging or entertaining. On the contrary, I found them a bit dry. That is to say nothing of the author's abilities. Although the novel reminds a bit of a history lesson, Auchincloss's eloquence is what truly captivates the reader. And again, the lack of any intrigue in the novel probably pertains to the author's dedication of presenting a realistic image of east-coast aristocracy, thus lacking in any traumatic events that would bring any drama to the plot and entertainment to the reader, for they were probably unexistant the lives of those who were so careful to preserve their family's class status.

Hungry Hearts (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

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A Useful Addition to Yezierska's Works in Print
Immigrant girl speaks truth for two centuries.

Hungry Hearts (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Anzia Yezierska
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141180056

Customer Reviews:

A Useful Addition to Yezierska's Works in Print.......2002-05-10

It's good to see Yezierska getting so much attention these days, and even better to see her books back in print. Hungry Hearts is the collection which earned Yezierska a Hollywood contract and gave her the title "Cinderella of the Tenements," but her skills with the short story are not as strong as her skills with the novel. If you are just getting interested in Yezierska, I'd recommend Bread Givers or Salome of the Tenements, both of which have also recently been reprinted.

Immigrant girl speaks truth for two centuries........2000-09-23

I opened up this book by Anzia Yezierska and fell in love. I fell in love with the words of a writer who is present and accountable and alive in every sentence. Never before have I been so disarmed by the passion and fire contained within and behind the words of any writer. It's as though she couldn't wait to get each word down, attacking the paper in describing her immigrant experiences, her neighbors, her family, herself. Because Anzia Yezierska was not afraid to expose her soul, I was taken on a journey that walked me though the life of one proud, passionate, immigrant woman. I was able to hear her fears, triumphs, pain and disappointments through her authentic and authorative voice. Passionate and real. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Average customer rating:

Not bad for the dreaded "required reading"!
An Outstanding Book with Several Flaws
Awesome book
"All pioneers have to get hard to survive."
I wanted to shake some sense into Sara's father

Bread Givers
Anzia Yezierska
Manufacturer: Persea Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0892550147

Book Description

Persea's 25th anniversary edition of this classic of twentieth-century American literature. More than 250,000 copies sold. Set on New York's Lower East Side during the 1920s, this is the moving story of a young woman's struggle to free herself from the traditional female role in an Orthodox Jewish family and society. Sara Smolinksy, the youngest daughter of a rabbi, watches as her father marries off her sisters into dire circumstances, and she vows to escape this fate. She leaves home, takes a job as an ironer, and rents a room with a door: "This door was life. It was air. The bottom starting-point of becoming a person." Sara's rebellion and her struggle for self-fulfillment-for education, work, and a marriage based on love-resonates with a passionate intensity all can share. In this new edition, the original text is retained; the introduction is updated; and a new foreword is added describing the discovery of this important work and the relationship with Yezierska's daughter that followed.

Customer Reviews:

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.

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.

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.

"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.

I wanted to shake some sense into Sara's father.......2005-11-05

for being such a tyrant, for spoiling his daughters' wedding plans, and for RUINING their lives -- and believe me-- that kind of stuff REALLY went on in those days! And I wanted to shake some sense into her mother for PUTTING UP WITH THIS!!!

Sara Smolinsky's life most probably parallels Anzia's real life. And if that is true, then I have the UTMOST respect for Sara/Anzia who against all odds, and especially as a woman back in the 1920's, found a place for herself and worked VERY hard to get that education and respect and "the good life" that all the middle-class American kids took for granted.

Someone reading this book today -- who has not read any books on the Immigrant experience or who has not become aquainted with Immigrant life in America in the early 20th Century -- wouldn't have a CLUE as to what it was really like back then, and to them this book would perhaps only serve to confuse or bore (!) them. Hopefully this book will not only shake readers out of their complacency, but it will encourage them to read other books about the Immigrant experience, such as "call it Sleep" by Roth.

The Bread-Givers is a great book.

The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow Into The Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle

Average customer rating:

A Straight Puerto Rican William S. Burroughs
Chicken soup for the post-colonialist post-post-modern post-New York gringa whitegirl soul...
Hilarious (and a bit political)
Omaha's Lamentable Journey a fun ride for the reader!!
Brilliantly written - except for the 'intermission'

The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow Into The Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle
Edgardo Vega Yunque
Manufacturer: Overlook Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Drown

ASIN: 1585676306

Customer Reviews:

A Straight Puerto Rican William S. Burroughs.......2006-04-20

Egardo Vega Yunque is like a straight Puero Rican William S. Burroughs in terms of effect surrealistic imagery. But the book has a strong story line, great characters, and its funny. There's quite a bit of philosophy in it, but the main thing is you're alway wondering what's going to come next. If sexual imagery offends you then don't get this book. What at first may seem like racial stereotypes turn out be valid statements about how ancient parts of our respective cultures are very much a part of us.

Chicken soup for the post-colonialist post-post-modern post-New York gringa whitegirl soul..........2006-03-21

The novel is dead, postmodernism was a fun ride that's been over pretty much since the 80's (when you were too short to ride anyhow), and you haven't looked back on Manhattan since it became overrun with extraordinarily able young women from Montclair and Chapel Hill and Bucks County in Banana Republic suits and $40 blowouts. But you find yourself riding the T with nostalgia and occasionally even wake up from a blackout to find yourself in, um, a bookstore. Browsing though, er, a novel. It's not like you have anything better to do on a Thursday night in whatever pseudocity lured you away fom Metropolis.

I like this one. The lamentable journey is self-conscious, but not painfully so, and I keep getting the feeling that Vega feels something similar for the novel that I do--it's that predictable ex-lover you keep going back to partly because you hope something new will finally happen and partly because you know that it won't. The book reads easily, it's a lot of fun, it makes you feel very clever to recognize Vega's allegories/references, and it won't leave you with that not-so-fresh-feeling. What more can you ask for?

Hilarious (and a bit political).......2005-01-18

This is an unusual book because of the interaction of the author and his characters and the digressions he makes for explanations or to express a viewpoint. One such expression is that Americans never know the geography of a country until they bomb it. He declares that few Americans know the geography of Puerto Rico (his native land) and asks the United States to please don't bomb Puerto Rico merely to learn the geography. This digression is hilarious, as are most of these. Even when being serious he's funny.

The theme of the novel is that a New York City born underage Puerto Rican heritage witch falls in love with a middle America born, now a bum, white guy with a small penis. She agrees to enlarge him, but it comes with a price: he must remain faithful to her. Okay, we now know what's going to happen. Hey! I've read Shakespeare and Greek Tragedy and know the consequences of anything given in return for a promise. If I learned nothing from Shakes and the Greeks I certainly learned by buying cars on time.

What one senses as he reads further into the work is the digressions don't occasionally interrupt the story; the story occasionally interrupts the digressions. Read it for these; it's worth your while.

I recommend it.

Omaha's Lamentable Journey a fun ride for the reader!!.......2005-01-07

Take a trip with White Bread Omaha into the far reaches of the barrio in this laugh-a-minute exploration of life. Ed Vega has a remarkable talent for capturing the multicultural flavor of language as it exists on the mean, and not-so-mean streets of the city. Although occasionally purient, this hilarious social commentary is well-worth the read, and is certain to appeal to the college crowd. Mixing his frank examination of barrio life with just a little bit of magic, Vega Yunque pulls the reader into a story not soon forgotten.

Don't be daunted by the title, the author's prose is tight and straight up; his examination of life is as diverse and exciting as the characters who carry this tale.

Brilliantly written - except for the 'intermission'.......2005-01-01

A brilliantly written book, spoilt by what can only be described as a worrisomely incontinent urge to intervene and pass comment on contemporary events. If only Ed Vega could pack the bite of, say, a Jonathan Swift in his political satires, this Omaha Bigelow could have been regarded as a great - or near-great - offering from the pen of the best thing out of Puerto Rico since, since ... I forget! When Vega Yunque learns to control the preening vanity, we might get something worthy of his excellent talents; but until he does so, we must admire his flawed genius and reflect how near we got to a classic. Only time will tell if Ed Vega can write like Marquez, Fuentes, Borges, or just stand all the time in his own way, casting a heavy shadow over an as yet underplayed brilliance. However, the book remains successful, and packs a magical-realism punch to-die-for (before you really do die at the authorial interventions!!!) More art, less Ed, if you please.

The Rise of David Levinsky (Modern Library Classics)

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A classic that should be better-known
A Great Business Novel
A major early work of American - Jewish Literature
Social realism with a soul
A blend of fiction and social realism

The Rise of David Levinsky (Modern Library Classics)
Abraham Cahan
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375757988
Release Date: 2001-11-13

Book Description

The Rise of David Levinsky, written by the legendary founder and editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, is an early Jewish-American classic. According to the scholar Sam B. Girgus, "The novel is more than an important literary work and cultural document. It forms part of the traditional ritual of renewal of the American Way."

First published in 1917, Abraham Cahan's realistic novel tells the story of a young talmudic scholar who emigrates from a small town in Russia to the melting pot of turn-of-the-century New York City. As the Jewish "greenhorn" rises from the depths of poverty to become a millionaire garment merchant, he discovers the unbearably high price of assimilation.

Download Description

It is with a peculiar sense of duality one reads this ancient work. While your mind is absorbed in the meaning of the words you utter, the melody in which you utter them tells your heart a tale of its own. You live in two distinct worlds at once. Naphtali had little to say to other people, but he seemed to have much to say to himself. His singsongs were full of meaning, of passion, of beauty. Quite often he would sing himself hoarse.

Customer Reviews:

A classic that should be better-known.......2006-10-17

I was prompted to buy and read this book by a bookclub-type event, and I am very glad to recommend this novel. Written in 1917 about an era even earlier than that, it is a classic tale of the immigrant experience, the American experience, and the Jewish experience, in the USA. The various pulls of culture, assimilation, poverty, wealth, sex, solitude, religion, secularism, education, and commerce are each subtly examined, so subtly that one doesn't realize until afterwards how much has been packed into a relatively simple story.
This Penguin version is the one to buy, it is compact, in readable type, and with a useful preface. Amazon is selling another version in an oversized paperback format--skip that one, it is awkward in size, and with many typos in the text. I actually disposed of that one and repurchased it in the Penguin paperback version.

A Great Business Novel.......2004-12-30

"The Rise of David Levinsky" is a great business novel. Cahan describes how Mr. L becomes a successful maker of men's coats, and how L's ex-partner's wife become a very successful real estate entrepreneur. Actual description of how business success has been achieved is rarely shown in novels: it's available here.

A major early work of American - Jewish Literature .......2004-11-07

There is an irony in the title. Cahan has a hero rise in wealth and position in the society only to be empty inside. There is a price to his Americanization in the loss in some deep sense of his past source of meaning in life.
This is a pioneering tale of American- Jewish Literature. It gives a picture of a world no longer with us.
It is clearly and well - written, and if it is not in the category of great Literature, still it is a valuable social document. It is well worth reading especially for those interested in ' immigrant literature'.

Social realism with a soul.......2004-07-01

I read this novel the first time in college and am re-reading it now. The social realism dazzled me then, but it's the incisive characterization that strikes me more now. You get a sense of objective social conditions, but a deeper and deeper sense of the main characters' souls as you read further along. Some of the sketches of human emotion sound familiar as something that happened to me yesterday.

I believe this helps Cahan make his point, of Levinsky's material accomplishment and spiritual impoverishment. He gradually becomes emptied out, so to speak. He has lost his traditional religion and rejected the socialist substitute for religion. At the beginning, he has little but knows who he is - at the end, he has much but seems a stranger to himself.

A blend of fiction and social realism.......2003-03-20

This book gives a solid sense of what it must have felt like to be a Jewish immigrant to New York around the turn of the century. I enjoyed the fact that the book was not only a very interesting adventure, but also a fascinating account of changing class consciousness and socialization to a new society. Kahan's account of what is gained and what is given up in this process allowed me to understand my own ancestors at a deeper level. He writes well in a journalistic style and is constantly providing details about his present that help me to understand the meaning of what was going on.

No Matter How Much You Promise . . .: A Symphonic Novel

Average customer rating:

Frightening talent
wow.
Look for other works by this gifted author.....
Cool Book and whatnot
A Journey I Wish I Hadn't Taken

No Matter How Much You Promise . . .: A Symphonic Novel
Edgardo Vega Yunqué
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow Into The Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle
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Casualty Report

ASIN: 0374223114

Book Description

An epic novel of jazz, race and the effects of war on an American family

This sweeping drama of intimately connected families --black, white, and Latino-- boldly conjures up the ever-shifting cultural mosaic that is America. At its heart is Vidamía Farrell, half Puerto Rican, half Irish, who sets out in search of the father she has never known. Her journey takes her from her affluent home to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where her father Billy Farrell now lives with his second family. Once a gifted jazz pianist, Billy lost two fingers in the Vietnam War and has since shut himself off from jazz.

In this powerful modern odyssey, Vidamía struggles to bring her father back to the world of jazz. Her quest gives her a new understanding of family, particularly through her half-sisters Fawn, a lonely young poet plagued with a secret, and Cookie, a sassy, streetsmart homegirl who happens to be "white." And when Vidamía becomes involved with a young African-American jazz saxophonist, she is forced to explore her own complex roots, along with the dizzying contradictions of race etched in the American psyche.

Edgardo Vega Yunqué vividly captures the myriad voices of our American idiom like a virtuoso spinning out a series of expanding riffs, by turns lyrical, deadly, flippant, witty, and haunting.

Customer Reviews:

Frightening talent.......2006-07-05

Capturing the readers attention by continuously drawing us back; I felt much like I did when I first read Conrad's LORD JIM. The author carries us into lives we may have never read; disturbing, rewarding and disturbing again. When I encountered the sexual violent scene I had to get up and walk away. As a vet I read through the Vietnam memories in a cathartic nod; but when the sexual violence was crammed into my face I put the book down. I no longer cared about the book's ending.

wow........2005-09-03

This book was amazing. I will never forget this book, this book has seriously contributed to me intellectually, emotionally, and has added to my world scope and view. As a puerto rican-american, I truly connected with the characters in this novel, and learned intensively from Yunqué's description of the loisaida y los nuyorriqueños in general. I've never read a book with such intensely discoursed characters and with such a widespread blanket of social, philosophical, and emotional depth contained in one book. The descriptions here and other reviews are more than enough to understand what the novel is about but I just wanted to add how inspiring this book was for me. There have been very very few books out there that have inspired real emotions in me, and this was one of them...If you felt true paranoia and fear after reading 1984, you'll feel true understanding and heartache after reading this novel. it's over 600 pages, but i highly recommend this to anyone, and for any other literary nuyoricans out there, this book will be especially touching.

edit: I went back and read some more reviews, and I have to agree that there are some parts that are long and extensive and not directly related to the main plot, but I never found the book boring. I feel that these offshoots just served to widen the scope of the book...for me, as a young reader, it's refreshing to read a book where not everything has a direct importance to the main plot yet has value and interest.

Look for other works by this gifted author............2004-06-18

The writer of the Publisher's Weekly review should be more thorough in their research before writing reviews. This is not Sr. Vega Yunque's "debut" novel. He has written and published, I believe at least two novels and at least one collection of stories and has published widely in journals/magazines. The man writes superbly and I was thrilled to finally have his beautiful book in print, after hearing so much about it. I'm furious with his publishers for the lack of promotion. Readings from this novel, which must have the longest title in publishing history, are quite special with actual jazz accompanyment. I believe that the publisher missed the boat when they failed to send the author out on a major book tour. It should be recognized, rewarded and READ.

Cool Book and whatnot.......2004-06-12

When I heard that this author had spent sixteen years writing an epic novel having to do with jazz music, I said, "Here we go again," having just read the two other 600-page Great American Novels published in 2003 -- those of Messrs. Lethem and Powers-- which somehow dealt with ethnic identity and music. And the sleeper, Vincent O. Carter's epic of growing up in Depression-era Kansas City, while not specifically about music, is certainly musical in its prose. So I had to read this book and didn't care what it was called, Concerto for Horn & Hardart or John Goldfarb, Please Come Home.

I have to disagree with the reviewer who said this novel doesn't have the 'sensitivity to music' of Time of Our Singing (undoubtedly a fine book in many ways), and I think one basis for comparison is both authors' interpretations of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez and its jazz adaptation by Miles Davis and Gil Evans. I think that Mr. Vega Yunqué gets it exactly right in Garlande's dialogue with Wyndell (Joseph Strom take note).

One thing I really loved were the histories of the characters, especially the rural Southern ones like Pop Butterworth, Buck Sanderson, Lurleen, et al., and I also like the author's sense of family and the interrelatedness of some of the characters in terms of ethnicity. And I think that shows in his view of music: he knows the lyrics to St. Thomas, he knows Phil's solos on Thelonious Monk at Town Hall, and someone I know even gets a word in: "Yeah!."

Walter Mosley not too long ago wrote a great blues novel set on E. 6th St. on the Lower East Side, but this one includes some of the landmarks and history of the neighborhood, the transit system, some of the literature, etc., that you probably have to have lived there to know about.

And finally, I loved all the information about New York Puerto Rican culture, the PR sense of self-identity, and especially the humor. Another great American cross-cultural irony is that Vidamía learns more about that culture by hanging out with her white half sister than from her Puerto Rican mother and stepfather. I liked Elsa because she's smart and she grows over the course of the novel.

A lot to recommend about this fine book.

A Journey I Wish I Hadn't Taken.......2004-05-28

A "Symphonic Novel"? Perhaps, if the symphony had been composed by PDQ Bach. About the only thing I'll remember about this book is its title. It is inconsistent in the quality of its prose. At times, it is almost poetic and spellbinding. At other times, however, it's very tedious and somewhat pompous and lecturing in its tone. A little more editing could have eliminated about 200 pages of unnecessary detail and dialogue.

Book Description

An indispensable volume of immigrant literature in a new trade paperback format and design. Individually, each of these 27 stories is authentic and immediate, as memorable as family history passed from one generation to the next; taken together, they comprise a vivid, enduring portrait of the struggles of immigrant Jews—particularly women—on New York's Lower East Side.

Customer Reviews:

Very THRILLING Book.......2000-06-11

This book was one of the many fine works of literature we needed for 11th grade at my school. While reading it I was engrossed and couldn't put it down. A really, really good book.

Average customer rating:

Hungry Hearts and Other Stories
Anzia Yezierska
Manufacturer: Persea Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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