A lovely, true collection of stories from Eastern European Jews settling in the Lower East Side. The primary story is the basis for the wonderful movie Hester Street. Cahan captures the strivings of the upwardly, craving Americanization greenhorns, but the two volumes of A Bintel Brief, the collections of letters to Cahan's Jewish Daily Foward (the Forvets) is even better. ( )

I liked the writing in these stories, and the way Kahan was able to present different aspects of her characters. I cared for and about them, and learned quite a bit about the very early life of the Jews both on the Lower East Side and in the old country. ( )