Book Review: Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska

´The whole world would be in thick darkness if not for men like me who give their lives to spread the light of the Holy Torah´.

Anzia Yezierska is a chronicler of the poverty and hardships of the first generations of Jews coming to America, the ´goldene medina/the country of gold´ (a diluted version of milk and honey). Her memoir Red Ribbon on a White Horse is a testimony of her personal experience of growing up in a family dominated by a dictator of a father dedicated to religion but neglecting his own family, but also of the struggle for every crumb. Growing up poor in this world is like a sickness which usually occurs sooner or later anyway. 

In the novel Bread Givers, part of her personal story served as an inspiration for some of the characters. As in her real life, the father of the family, Reb Smolensky, is a Torah scholar oblivious to the needs of his daughters and wife. The daughters are his source of revenue and marrying them is a business that should help him survive. For him, women are just an add-on, who may bring some money into the house besides keeping the house lit for the comfort of the learned men. ´Women had no brains for the study of God´s Torah, but they could be the servants of men who studied the Torah. Only if they cooked for the men, and washed for the men, and didn´t nag or curse the men out of their homes; only if they let the men study the Torah in peace, maybe, they could push themselves into Heaven with the men, to want on them there´. Maybe...Surprisingly or not I´ve heard such platitudes more than once in our current times.

Ironically, there are the women characters, all of them, who are more sympathetic and stronger than the men. They are not only ambitious and successful in their endeavours, but also are pretending men to offer them comfort and praise their presence. The switch from the generation of women from the ´old country´ to the ´Americans´ is done. 

The brave main character of Bread Givers is the little Sara who´s running away from a house blackened by poverty and the dictatorship ruling of a narcissistic father. She will be the only sister who will achieve a professional career - as a teacher - and a rewarding relationship, through hard work and resilience. The resilience of people who survived pogroms to move to America and start a new life, but in most cases, those chances happened rather for their children and grand children. 

Literally speaking, it´s clear that the audience of this book has a very different profile as the readership of today, both Jewish and American. However, there is a deep humanity of the characters which appeals across ages and times, including Sara´s late reconciliation with his abusive father and her emotional attitude when faced with the death of her mother that she willingly separated. The way in which the story is told creates a special ambiance and set up a story which is interesting to follow because of its universal human interest.

Every time I am reading books like Bread Givers I feel like a whole history of American Jews is becoming more human and easier to understand. It is a hard history of struggles and hardship that helps to understand how far they succeeded. It´s a sociological and anthropological insight that may explain a lot.

Rating: 3 stars