Bread givers : a novel : a struggle between a father of the Old World and a daughter of the New / by Anzia Yezierska ; with an introd. by Alice Kessler Harris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yezierska, Anzia, 1880?-1970.

Language:

English

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

xviii, 297 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Persea Books, [1975] c1925.

Summary:

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.

Anzia Yezierska (1889-1970), a Polish Jewish immigrant, wrote about "her people" -- the Jews of the Lower East Side -- in an autobiography, short stories, and novels many published by Persea.

ISBN:

0892550147 :

OCLC:

187309480