Bread Givers: A Novel

It is difficult to read BREAD GIVERS by Anzia Yezierska and not feel the same barrage of competing emotions that afflict nearly everyone in the book. On a literal level, Yezierska writes of the struggle of Russian/Polish Jews to assimilate in the New York just before the First World War. The action is narrated over a period of some dozen years by Sara Smolinsky, who begins the novel as a ten year old girl, one of three other sisters. We see the action filtered through her eyes, so there is the natural reaction to perceive events as she does. But what she sees is so emotionally shattering that the reader soon learns to substitute his own experiences as that filter.
Sara and her family live in New York but their world view is heavily shaped by their origins in the Old World of eastern Europe. In that society, the male head of the household is the master. Not only does he dare claim that women have no place in running a household, but he also can point to the Torah as justification. Sara's father, the Reb Smolinsky, is drawn in such a nasty, vindictive way that he all but emerges as a one dimensional caricature of all that can go wrong when one hides behind saintly words as an excuse to bully others. The Reb refuses to work for money; he expects his family to do that, leaving him time to study the Torah. He routinely squashes flat his daughters' confidence by insulting them daily. He arranges disastrous marriages for them, and when these marriages go predictably bad, he avoids responsibility by telling them, 'As you make your bed, so must you sleep in it.' But because he appears in every chapter, he, rather than Sara, becomes the center of dramatic focus. He is so vile and hateful that the reader even begins to question the source of the Reb's tirades: the Torah itself. Long before the final chapter, the reader begins to see the inevitable results of what happens when a weak-minded individual takes words and ideas which are intrinsically noble and bastardizes them into something monstrous. There is no evil that is beyond the Reb's ability to twist from a more benign source as the Torah. Sara's other sisters suffer long years of acquiescence, slowly building a fund of bitter gall that simply awaits the opportunity for a well-deserved revenge. For the longest time so does Sara, but what happens to her is the rarest miracle of all. Sara tries against stupendous odds to come to grips with the ages old paradox: should one return good for evil? It would have been so easy for her to take the route of her sisters, to return hate for hate. Sara is the only one in a book full of hurt people inflicting verbal pain on others who even tries to peek behind that curtain of verbal weapons that masks a festering sore of decades. She is a towering figure of strength and discipline that lingers in the mind long after the pathetic sadism of a reb finally begins to wear out its welcome in the lives of civilized people. BREAD GIVERS serves to remind the reader that words can heal as well as hurt.

It seems that lazy narcissistic parents make for a great story these days. Back in 1997 we had the good intentioned, yet perpetually drunk father in Angela’s Ashes. Then came The Glass Castle, a crazy family saga. Next comes Fiction Ruined My Family, where the father spends years refusing to work, pipe-dreaming of the day he’ll become a great writer. All of them were predated by a lazy, good-for-nothing Rabbi, the protagonist of Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers, written in the 1920’s. I can tell this is going to be funny and tragic at the same time.

The story begins on the dirty, smoggy, crowded, noisy Lower East Side of Manhattan in the days before the car. Sarah Smolensky slaves away, as do her sisters, so that her “scholar” father is free to read the holy book. Their mother? She slaves too. They could take in a boarder to help pay the bills, but no, they can’t do that, the scholar in their home needs a room for his books. Take a job? How dare you expect a Rabbi to work! You’d think his wife would say “work, or you eat last” but that doesn’t happen either, she always serves him first. But don’t blame this lazy, callous husband and father. Back in the old country, his wife was taught to put up with it.

As the story progresses (or goes downhill, depending on how you look at it) her sisters marry lousy men, Sarah moves out on her own, enrolls in school, her mother gets sick and dies because she can’t afford a doctor. Sarah goes to an upstate college, becomes a new person, and in the meantime, her father marries a gold-digger. It ends well for Sarah, terribly for her family. But there are funny parts, like the one where her landlady yells “no, I won’t rent to students, they keep the lights on too long to read and waste electricity!” Then Sarah gets to college, and she’s shocked by the clean air; she’d never experienced anything but pollution (this was discussed in Supreme City). As for the boring college meals, they’re a luxury compared to her previous diet of bread and herring.

My problem with this book is that the last chapter should’ve been extended. When she returns to the city as a schoolteacher, you really get the feeling that this is a triumph. She has a steady paycheck, a decent room, and she can afford to dress well. Everything from here on is a breath of fresh air to her. It gets funny when she tries to get her students to pronounce the words right; they call a pearl a “poil” and to drive her nuts, they pronounce the word oil as “earl.” Unlike the teachers of today, there’s no trip to the bar after work, women in those days couldn’t drink in bars anyway. At least not the “respectable” ones who come up from the slums.

I hadn’t heard of this book until recently. The author Anzia Yezierska was born in Poland in 1885, moved to New York City as a child, spent time in San Francisco as a social worker, wrote lots of stories with rags-to-riches themes. Hollywood studios took interest in her stories, one of them made it to the screen. But most of her income was from college fellowships, or later the WPS writing program. By the 1960’s, it was mostly the feminists who were interested in her work, as part of the women’s studies programs that were sprouting up at the time.

As a Jewish American, I was always taught that we were the model minority, always free of problems, and any mention of less-successful Jews was hushed up. This book kind of un-hushes a lot of problems that Jewish immigrant families had. There were many Lower East Side families destroyed by poverty, and many of them didn’t do well. The whole stereotype of the “smart Jew” is just that, a stereotype. At the time Bread Givers takes place, Jewish immigrants scored very low on IQ tests, and very few went to college. My grandmother’s family believed in education and hard work, but there were some dysfunctional families too. Bread Givers is just that; a dysfunctional religious Jewish family whose success (aside from that of the protagonist) is still a generation ahead of them.

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.

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 started this book with the mentality that this was just going to be another one of those immigrant accounts where the characters tell their rags to riches story. I wasn't wrong, but the book held so much more. I would probably categorize this more as a feminist book since gender is such an issue.
The main character, Sara Smolinsky, narrates the story of her family and their experience in living in perpetual poverty in early twentieth century New York. Her father, an Orthodox Russina/Polish Jew, spends his days studying the Torah so that he can bring 'light' to the world, while his daughters and wife take sole responsibility as being the burdern bearers. He adds further distress to their lives by arranging loveless and grim marriages for each of his daughters. Only his youngest, Sara, doesn't let him ruin her life, but rather sets out to make something of herself on her own terms. Also, the fact that both Sara and her father's lives are so intwined gives the lesson that no matter how far a person goes, they really can't escape thier past, as Sara tried to, but for her feelings of guilt could not.
Overall the book displays various insights to the condition of the 20th century immigrant and displays how far the Old World really is from the New World. Most importantly, it shows that with the proper dose of good sense and courage, one can truly transform their life.

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.

My name is Bessie Hurwitz, and I read this book in my 6th grade LA class.This book is deep and touching. It is told though the youngest of the Smolinsky daughters, Sara. The father is a preaching tyrant. He cannot make a living, but sits and prays all day, saying the woman is the curse, and blames his daughters for his mistakes. Sara runs away and tries to survive in the world by getting a college education. This story paints life for immagrants in New York during the early 1900's. Sara tells about how she feels about life. I can really enter her world. It is not a light read, but it is worth your while. The ending seems disapointing, but I don't want to ruin it for you. It's one of the books that you'll never forget about.

this was like a charlie chaplin movie- only in written form. how could i possiblu feel anything for the characters when itwas so poorly written. angelas ashes it was not. i wish the store reviewers could actually give a real review. i wish i didnt waste my money!

Bread Givers is a simply written story, but it captures in depth what is was to be an immigrant in the early 1900's. Sara was an example to us all to be our own person and live our own lives. Sara displayed Yezierska's idea that it is not possible for am immigrant to become one hundred percent American. It would be immpossible to completely wipe out one's past. Different backgrounds are what make the United States such a unique country. Immigrants coming to the United States should not be forced to forget or abolish their own heritage, but they should adjust to the new life that they have gained, just as Sara Smolinsky did willingly, and her father, Reb Smolinsky, was forced to do in the end.

Anzia Yezierska touches the core of the immigrant experience with this novel. Through the eyes of Sara Smolinsky, we learn to view the world for its possibilities, not its pitfalls. The novel is a series of contrasts. While Yezierska does not lead us to judge, Reb Smolinsky, Masha the "empty-headed", and several of the secondary characters, evoke very strong sentiments in the reader. While we empathize with the family's plight, and support the independence of "blood and iron" Sara, we cannot help but feel for the comparatively weak characters. This novel is a very quick and easy read. Highly recommended.

Even though this book is probably set anywhere from the late 1890's to early 1920's--as the book was first published in 1925--as a woman it is hard not to be totally offended by Reb. Smolinsky's attitudes towards women. He says: "A woman without a man is less than nothing. A woman without a man can never enter Heaven." As a Christian, I obviously find this belief to be totally untrue, but it is the statement that a woman is nothing without a man that just makes me wish that Reb. Smolinsky was standing in front of me so I could strangle him.
Even though I hated the father more than words can say, I still gave this book five stars because it is so unbelievably inspiring. Sara Smolinsky does not allow her father to completely dominate her. She does not allow him to marry her off to a man that she does not love--like he did her three older sisters. She leaves home around the age of seventeen and works in a laundry store all day and takes night classes at night for years so that she can go to college. She has to make so many sacrifices along the way, but she never gives up on her dream of graduating from college and becoming a teacher. The fact that she was able to work her way out of poverty, get an education, and obtain her dream of becoming a teacher was just so inspirational.
I read this book for a literature class on American Immigrants, and I am so thankful that teacher assigned the book because I got a lot out of it. Watching Sara's transformation in this book from an uneducated and emotionally uncontrolled woman into a cool and controlled professional who could succeed in America, in a way her father never could, was a kind of growing experience for me, as well.
Also, as I neared the end of the book, I kind of began to see the father in a different light. Yes he was a horrible tyrant to the women in his family, but he was also like a fish out of water flopping around helplessly. He had been uprooted from his home in Poland and replanted in America where nothing was like it was for him back in the Old World. Therefore, there are times when Reb. Smolinsky really comes off as this just completely pathetic character, and I almost would have felt sorry for him if he had not put all the blame for his failures on his wife and daughters--and made their lives even more miserable because of his failures.

Bread Givers is an essential book for any student of 20th C American Literature. Yezierska poignantly captures the multitude of feelings an obstacles any immigrant must face in the struggle to find where he/she fits in: the old world or the new. The first time I read Bread Givers, there were many nights I lied in bed awake at night, angry at the father for being so dominearing, angry at the daughters for being submissive. But through all the struggle betwixt in the pages, Bread Givers is a story of hope, of love, and of triumphance. You will not be dissapointed.

I read this for my history of childhood course (I'm a history major) and this was a fascinating read into the life of a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe. She learns to find her own happiness after watching her father arrange marriages for her three sisters to men they don't love. After every chapter, I felt like going into the book and just screaming at Sara's pious, lazy Orthodox Jewish father who does nothing but study his Holy Torah. This book should be required reading not just in colleges but in high schools, too.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in America. Told at a time when America was more innocent yet the dark clouds, the roots of todays hegenomy, were gathering. Bread Givers is a largely autobiographical story of one woman's struggle to make a life for herself despite a time and place that conspire against her. Like the author Anzia Yezierska, Sara Smolinsky, the daughter of poor Russian-Jewish immigrants fights against the tyranny of her father, a rabbi, and his old-world beliefs in order to become a self-reliant person. In a broader sense, she also struggles against the social norms of the early twentieth century. Her journey is full of hardship and surprises, not the least of which is that...not to give it away. Sara is a character which is so full of life and vitality she seems to leep from the page. I wonder if Sara is a proto-type to characters seen in later fiction, espcially science-fiction of the early sixties.

I loved this book. It tells of a family who/s father rules the lives of his daughters and how the daughter/s lives are affected by the father/s strong beliefs. I was so into this book that i actually could have feelings for this family that stayed with me for days. This book was our book club pick for last month and we all loved it.

Although typically I do not like books set in earlier times, I fell for this one. It focuses on a female immigrant and her struggles of living in poverty in America. With a stronghead father, who insists a woman has no being without a man, Sara, the main character, triumphantly and repeatedly shows him what a girl is truly made of. For all woman-power females out there, this is a wonderful read. Discriptive wording and interesting dialogue, you will turn page after page as Sara touches your heart.

My comment on this book is Sara stood up for what she belived. My heart broke whan I read this book.I emagined being raised in to a family like this. Their father is the most horble person. It is sad that the mother soffered until her last breath. The stepmather is worst then the father. I like the way there let the father taste his own madicine. I am glad Sara finished her education. She wanted to be a teacher and she did it.It reminded me some of my own struggle for education in the US.

The Bread Givers takes place in 20th century. There were many immigrants. It was hard for old people to change their life, culture and tradition. I was angry with Sara's father (Mr. Rob Smolinsky) who always thought how to get money from his daughters. I admire Sara for her struggle and hard study in school. Sara shows us the life is hopeful and won't be dissapointing.

I like this novel story because, Sara Smolinsky represents hopes of many immigrants, who came to America.It was hard at that time to survive in the new world, but Sara shows us, that we can build up ideas by ourselfs,and be whatever we want to be. I like the way she respects her father because she understood in the end that he was raised in the past century.

This book is terrific! However, it was never meant to spark some sort of feminist movement. I believe the author's purpose was to inspire people everywhere to rise above those traditions and habits that keep them chained to a purposeless life. Inspiring! Written with great detail but not too much as to bore...

This is a turn of the century, Ghetto New York story but it's universal to all the world and all time. The story is rich & soul searching. A page turner. If you read it ask yourself have things changed that much. There are still many religions & cultures throughout the world where women are not treated fairly.

While reading this novel I kept counting my blessing - feeling fortunate to be born in the late 20th century. The women in this story come to the U.S. for a chance to work and marry someone they love. Sounds simple but they struggle to obtain these goals AND show respect for their Torah fanatic father.

This book has touched me deeply. My grandparents were these Jewish immigrants fighting for a place in America and my mother the heroine of this story. It explained clearly the love/hate embrace/spurn duality existing within me toward my parents, the community of my childhood, and my heritage. Thank you, Anzia, for writing this book.

While a very vivid depiction of growing up as a daughter of immigrants in 1920s New York, the book really loses steam about half way through. This is mostly due, unfortunately, to the fact that it relies on shock value rather than good writing or vivid description to carry the tale. I'm not sure I would reccomend it to anyone seeking an indepth and searching tell-all. It's something you'll read once, and probably never look at again.

This may sound crazy, but this little book helped bring me out of a severe depression. I was seriously contemplating suicide when my friend Wilma gave me a copy of this book that she had to read for her college literature class. I feel like a new person after following the experiences of the main character of the story, Sarah as she works her way through college as a lowly daughter of poor Jewish immigrants from Poland. I guess it hit home because I from Lithuania, which is right next door to Poland and because I have a lot of Polish friends. Anyway, to make my point, if you want to read a good book, and you can't afford prozac, then read this book!

This story was just "ok." It had little depth compared to many other great novelists of the 20th century. Most of the conflict is easily seen just by scraping the surface. It is, however, easy to read, and Reb Smolinsky does evoke some angry emotions from the reader.

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.

Thank God I was born in the USA.
I've never known such poverty, but have been poor.
I've never felt such hate as Sara and her sisters, but my Father is is full of selfless love.
Read it and know gratitude.

https://www.the store.com/gp/aag/main/ref=olp_merch_name_1?ie=UTF8&asin=0892552905&isthe storeFulfilled=1&seller=A3SWJ7IGNSV8DIBread Givers: A Novel

Hi, I am only 12 years old and I loved this book!!!!!!!! My mother gave it to me and I couldn't put it down. I finished it in less then a week! PLEASE DO READ IT, IT IS SOMETHING YOU WILL NEVER FORGET!

I really enjoyed Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska. It was a book that I felt that others might be able to relate to. Bread Givers was a riveting read that I did not want to have to put down. It answered many questions thatI had about Jewish Life in the early 1900s, but it left many questions unanswered. I would definetly reccomend Bread Givers to any one that is interested in reaidng a book about fairly new immigrents struggling to live in New York at the turn of the 20th century.

I really enjoyed this book, it was well-written and good about including relevant cultural perspectives while being subtle. It was fast and easy read and you really felt for the main character. I had to read it for school.

I'm not a kid, I just didn't want to have to sign in on my screen name.

Anyway, I had to read this book this year for American History and I have to say that it was just God Awful. This is some of the most hackneyed reading I have ever seen. Not only are the characters ridiculously boring, but the story is just plain bad. Everything that you would expect to go wrong does, everytime things start to look up, something goes wrong. The metaphors used in this book also sound like the first attempts a 3rd grader trying to use metaphors. Not only is it bad, but Yezierska is just plain inconsistent with her characters.

*Spoilers

After his first wife dies, Reb remarries but his new wife is just after him for the money. When sleeping at his house, his daughter hears his new wife trying to get the still weak Reb to sign over his inheritence to her. The daughter quickly gets up and yells at the new wife. The next day though, the wife is now helping the husband put on his clothes and is asssisting around the house and the daughter realizes that he is dependent upon his new wife. There is no explanation for her sudden change of heart, it just happens. Then the daughter makes some food for the new wife who in return makes apple struedel for her and then they become the best of friends. The whole novel is like this with it's stupidity and inconsistency. Even our teacher said that its a pretty bad book, but that we read it because its a first hand account. Please, dont think this book is worth getting, it's really just a horrible piece of recycled trash you've heard a thousand times.

Okay, I've read books about Family life and this one has little artistry. Sure it shows how a young jewish girl struggles with her life, but does it by begging for the reader's sympathy. Sympathy should be earned by showing the reader rather than begging for it. Harry Potter is a good example of that. Potter had a nasty homelife, but did he complain as much as Sara Smolinsky?
No.
If you want to read a good book on struggling families, read something like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.