by Henry Roth
First published 2015
Ira Stigman feels trapped in 1920s New York. While his friends excel and impress others, he carries the burden of his family's poverty and immigrant status. He takes jobs on trolley cars and sells soda at Yankee Stadium, where he encounters petty criminals and corrupt schemes. Each decision seems to pull him deeper into trouble. His peers appear polished and accomplished while he struggles with shame about his background. The worst burden comes from within his own household, where a forbidden attraction has poisoned his conscience. Ira moves through an underworld of small crimes and moral compromises, making choices that lead him further from the life he wants. Yet even in these depths, literature offers him glimpses of understanding and the possibility of forgiveness.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, moral-dilemma
Setting: Hudson, New York
Period: 1920s
432 pages · Kindle Edition · Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Content warnings: depression