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Mike Gold (Itzok Isaac Granich) wrote and edited prolifically for American communist journals throughout the 20’s and 30’s, but this is his only novel. While not “history�� in the proper sense the book no doubt holds historical value for its status as a well-known example of “proletarian literature�� and for its subject matter of the living conditions of Jewish immigrants in New York. Despite the clear political aim it largely avoids becoming didactic, at times it feels extremely visceral and violent (a more pedestrian descriptor like “gritty�� would not this work justice), at other deeply moving and occasionally beautiful. A self-evident classic.