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I clearly have a soft spot for books about the 1920s and 1930s, but this autobiographical novel about Jews on the Lower East Side in the early 20th century (the book was published in 1930) gripped me. The novel is episodic, jumping from story to story, giving insight into all facets of life for the poverty stricken immigrants. The book is rough in parts--the descriptions are gritty--but appealingly so. I felt myself wondering how any person/family could possibly lift himself/themselves from such desperate conditions. This book was mesmerizing as it allows us a peek in to a New York that is so remote from what it is today.