Revisiting it, this book reminded me why it had made an impression on me earlier. Yezierska has a plain and effective style that allows you to live in her world. The established themes of American Literature are strong through this book and the good and bad of American life and dreams are explored effectively.

This reminded me so much of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but less hopeful and with a lot of Jewish heritage mixed in. I enjoyed reading it!

In Better Angels of our Nature, Stephen Pinker describes literature as a "tool for empathy." Few books emphasize this point as well as Bread Givers. Yezierksa puts you in the shoes of a poor Jewish immigrant girl growing up in New York City under the tyrannical reign of her father. I'd love to use a number of inappropriate words to describe the father, but I'll stick to ones I feel comfortable saying on goodreads: hypocritical, fundamentalist, narcissistic, impractical, terrible with money, lazy, unwilling to admit error, and misogynistic in the true sense of the word. One can only celebrate the protagonist Sara's escape and victorious quest to remake herself as an American and a teacher. The father is so backwards and tyrannical that he almost seems to be a one-dimensional caricature, although by the end of the book you see how helpless he really is. He's a great example of the self-serving nature of religious and cultural fundamentalism and how these systems of belief are incompatible with the rights and happiness of oppressed groups, especially women. Seriously, he ranks up there with some of the most hatable figures in literature. He belongs in the Pantheon of literary a-holes with Dolores Umbridge, Mr. Ewell, and Humbert Humbert.

This book also raises a number of important issues in American history. Sara escapes from the limited future and hypocritical preaching of her father by latching onto an American identity of the value of labor, education, and individual independence. In other words, American culture offers her an outlet from her more oppressive cultural background. She asserts herself as a person independent of man, and maintains that independence throughout the story. Nevertheless, there's a cost to this breaking away. First, she must labor incredibly hard to work her way into the American dream. Second, she is not accepted by most other Americans, especially in college, because they can see her impoverished immigrant background. Finally, she is ultimately drawn back to supporting her father by a lingering feeling of responsibility for her parents, no matter how bad her father was. All in all, this book makes you think about the plight of women and immigrants everywhere, and how social and cultural systems need to leave room for the genuine dreams of all people who are willing to work at them.

297 pages.

I am presently looking at my two copies of "Books To Check Out: A Journal" where before Goodreads, I religiously wrote down the names of books I read with dates starting in the late 90's and early 2000's. Before that it was just the title and author. I read Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska probably in the 80's and I'm sure I loved it because of the subject matter. A young Jewish girl in the 1920's whose orthodox rabbi father does everything he can to keep his daughters wedded to the old ways of subjugation to the men in their lives and resistance to any thoughts or actions resulting from independent thoughts. The main character, Sara, sees that both her mother and sisters choose their filial, or family, duty over their own personal hopes and desires, and the result is that they are miserable and discontented. Sara makes different choices in order to find happiness.

One thing I was taken by in the novel were the old world Jewish names of the characters. Sara's family name is Smolinsky, which rang a familiar bell for me. I am told that my last name, Smoger, was likely changed from Smogerinsky. One of Sara's sisters, Fania Smolinsky marries Abe Schmukle. I cannot read the name Schmukle without giggling. I remember the story my mother used to tell us about working in an office and whenever someone called for Harry Schmukle, the boss would call out loud and clear...."Harry SCHMUKLE to the telephone", and all the office girls would laugh and laugh, as would my sister and I when my mother, who never said a bad word, cried out Schmuckle.

Two quotes to end the review of a book that may be worth re-reading. "Just as I looked to Father for love, he rose up to stone me." Yet at the end Sara understood more about her father. "In a world where all is changed, he alone remained unchanged."

For my JBooks.com essay on this book, "A Room of Anzia Yezierska's Own," please click here.

I will be teaching a course beginning in September about the immigrant experience in the United States and I came across this book in my research. What an interesting find!

Sara Smolinsky is the youngest of four daughters of an Orthodox rabbi from Poland. She watches as her father marries off her older sisters to unsuitable men. She is determined not to be another victim of her father's arrogance and incompetence. She leaves home in order to get an education and become a teacher. Her father repudiates her and her choices. So Sara hardens her heart and her mind, in order to achieve her goals. Is the struggle to survive on one's own worth it?

This book had many themes. There was the constant conflict of American values versus traditional Jewish beliefs. There was the disregard of women and their wants and needs by a patriarchal authority. There was the habitual conflict between parents and children. Money, its uses and abuses, was a secondary, but potent theme.

This book, with autobiographical tones, was easy to read, although sad and frustrating to the reader.

Finished rereading on 2/3/10 and haven't changed my rating. Looking forward to teaching about this book again. This time I was impressed by the filth and noise of Hester Street in Manhattan. One of Sara's goals was to have a place of her own that was quiet, clean and empty of everything but necessities, all characteristics that were missing when she lived in the slums.

What I hated:

-The father is an absolute motherfugging piece of dip-shiz. Can he die? Please? He's just such an a-hole and a hypocrite just LET. HIM. DIE. AND. ROT. IN. HELL. -cough- Thank you.
-The mother died instead of the father. WTF IS THIS!?
-All of the characters were stupid and shallow and selfish. I didn't even like Sara that much.
-The whole book was just repetitions on how horrible her life is. She doesn't even really do anything to try and make it better until late in the book.
-All of the random Polish or whatever. Dude, Anzia, I'm a lazy person and I don't want to google translate a billion words. Could you please just provide a translation somewhere??
-THE FATHER IS SUCH A BAD AND LSAKJDLKASJDKSADKD MAN. I WILL KILL HIM. I REALLY WILL. I HATE HIM. UGH.
-The writing was just weird. The transitions were terrible so I couldn't really grasp what was happening until after it happened. (Does that make sense? Lol probably not.)

What was okay:

-The history lesson in all of this. (Since this was for my US history class) It was interesting (I suppose) but the story was just so awful it stopped me from appreciating the history. (I don't even like history lol.)

What I liked:

-............
Nothing. Nada. El zippo.

Seriously, unless you HAVE to do this say, for school, I highly recommend you don't read this. As it will make you want to rip your teeth out throughout the entire thing).

So let me just say:

Board of Education, you suck.

Insincerely,
Dana.

Wow, back at it again. As i was reviewing the Secret Garden as the worst literary work our world has had the displeasure of encountering, I remembered Bread Givers. O' Bread Givers...why? Why? Why in all of god's heavenly earth does this book exist? I cringe at the fact that the average rating for this book is 4 stars.

Just to give a brief plot summary of this book (and yes unlike Secret Garden i actually finished this one) there's a Jewish girl who complains how bad her father is. The father is a giant douche-bag. Rinse and repeat. Bam, you've finished this book! As the great rabbis of the past once said "The Torah teaches you one thing. Do onto others as you wish they would do onto you. That is it. The rest is commentary. Go out and learn it."

Bread Givers is the same to the Torah in that matter. This book is about a complaining girl whose father is the biggest, most backwards Old World idiot to ever walk the face of the Earth. The rest is simply fluff. All 310 pages of it or so.

Now then, i understand it is based off the life of the author. I get it. The father and the people of that generation were backwards, I get it. However, the image and antics of the father gets to a point where he doesn't seem to be a real person anymore. Every fucking moment of this book is the father fucking up the lives of his family in the most drastic and senseless ways. I simply became angry with the book. How the fuck is he such a fucking moron? Their lives would of been so much better with the shithead dead.

Though, eventually my anger shifted from the father to the main narrator. There is truly no way that this man is supposed to believable. I understood how stupid he was in the first 25 fucking pages....I didn't more proof. Though the Father isn't the only one who pissed me off. Every single character in this book are senseless sad sacks who are too shallow and mindless to try to improve their way of life. No one seems capable of making the slightest inch of progress other than the narrator. This just added to the lack of credibility for this story.

There is a clear foil. The narrator and her Father. Cool, that's a basic tool used to formulate a story. However, every character is a foil for the narrator. Everyone is the opposite of the narrator. Every one is depicted as shitty to raise the opinion of the main narrator for the audience. There is not a single character in this book I can find as a model on how to live life or just be a decent human being. The fish peddler definitely isn't one. The vain sister of the narrator sure isn't one. The ignorant and whiny mother sure isn't one.

The setbacks this family encounter isn't exactly motivating either. Usually in stories like these, there is a conflict and they overcome it and move on from it improved and more experienced. I'm not saying that i wanted this story to be a "happily ever after story" (i hate those stories) either. However, the problem with the family is that despite how many setbacks they encounter they never fucking learn from them. They keep acting ignorant and continued to do the same shit that fucks them over and over and over and over again.

I suppose that's the core problem with this terrible story. Its repetitive. The complaining is repetitive. The setbacks are repetitive. The constant use of outdated and antiquated terms/phrases (i.e. the hair tearing out phrase, use of the word "Nu", and the derogatory terms the Father uses for his daughters) are fucking repetitive! Everything is predictable. I know the second that they rise a bit up in the social ladder a problem is going to set them back...you know why!?!? BECAUSE THE STORY ALWAYS DOES THAT!. ITS ALL A CYCLE OF DESPAIR AND SORROW THAT COULD BE AVOIDED IF THE FAMILY WEREN'T USELESS AND HAD A INCH OF WORKING BRAIN MATTER!

Fuck Bread Givers.

It is interesting to note that this semi-autobiographical novel was written in 1925. It is certainly readable and compelling- as many historical books are. This is the tale of a Polish-Jewish family who have immigrated to the teeming, impoverished ghetto of New York. Sarah, who is the youngest of four daughters of a Talmudic rabbi, is the narrator of this tale. As is often typical of ultra- religious families, women are subjugated to the rules of male dominance. In this case, the daughters were expected to earn enough money to provide sustenance for the family while their father was free to "study", preach and dictate every whim of expected behavior. The girls were rarely free for individual pleasures or to choose prospective husbands. The substandard wages they earned kept them in constant poverty.

We'd come home worn and tired from working hard all day and there was Father with a clear head from his dreams of the Holy Torah, and he'd begin to preach to each and every one of us our different sins that would land us in hell.He remembered the littlest fault of each and every one of us, from the time we were born. (p.65 )

Weary and discouraged from this life and eager for education, Sarah flees from this dark, crowded
unhealthy environment to better herself. When she returns to visit with her family after her initial educational endeavor, her reception was as expected. Her father erupted.

Rage flamed from his eyes as he thundered at me, stamping his feet. 'Pfui on your education! What's going to be your end? A dried-up old maid? You think you can make over the world?You think millions of educated old maids like you could change the world one inch? Woe to America where women are let free like men. All that's false in politics, prohibition and all the evils of the world come from them. I no longer saw my father before me, but a tyrant from the Old World where only men were people. To him I was nothing but his last unmarried daughter to be bought and sold. (P.205) '

So Yezierska has painted a vivid, but accurate picture of life for these women almost 100 years ago. While much progress has been made since the inception of Women's Lib, we still have further to go and many women continue to suffer in patriarchal societies.

Note: Included in this book there are many interesting notes written by the daughter and historical researchers.

The title of this book gives the impression that of who should be and should not be a bread winner. In most societies bread winners are men but in the novel, the bread winners are the most unusual members of the society. The narrator tells the story of her father, a man he considers to be rigid and tyrannical. He governs his family under the strict tenets of the Torah. He believes that women are created to serve their husbands. He curses the narrator for forsaking his traditions and instructions. An illuminating book.

Semi-autobiographical work by a Jewish-American female author, Anzia Yezierska. It's a great book, although quite sad in parts . . . but the ending is beautiful, and well worth all the struggle of the earlier chapters. (I often find myself thinking about it, in fact, even though it's been a good many months since I finished it.) I could really identify with Sara's struggle to get an education and become a teacher, because that's what I want to do myself (although of course I haven't had to work nearly as hard.) It's a fascinating story, and highly recommended for anyone interested in American immigration history.

3 1/2 stars rounded up, because after I discuss with book club, I will like it more. Published in 1925, this autobiographical novel is the story of an immigrant Jewish family who have fled Poland and settled on the LES of Manhattan. Four daughters are expected to work and bring all their money home to support the family, as their Torah scholar father believes he has been put on this earth to read and pray all day, which leaves no time to get a job. The mother is torn between despair and pride, trying to feed this family of 6 and keeping them housed while she has a smart, respected husband. The father absolutely enraged me, as he was not only completely useless, but selfishly destroyed some of his daughters' chances for happiness. Father did not always know best. This is not the best written book, as the author was not a native English speaker and I don't know what kind of editors her publisher, Persea Books employed. I was willing to overlook the flaws to read this novel, with characters who were so familiar to me despite being written nearly a century ago.