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carmenere's review against another edition
4.0
Ms. Suberman writes a sweet, loving memoir of her Jewish Russian immigrant parents and her siblings. Her father, known as Aaron in the book, moves his family from everything and everyone they know and love in NYC to, in 1920, a very rural corner of Tennessee.
The conditions are difficult, discrimination and prejudice are especially directed to Jewish, Catholic and people of color. The Klu Klux Klan is alive and well, approving or disapproving what they choose.
Aaron, however, is a patient and intelligent business man and in just a short period of time his "Jew Store" aka Bronson's Low Priced Store is in business and providing dry goods to farm families in the area.
All is not well with his wife, Reba. She misses the closeness of extended family and doesn't understand the Southern way of life. She laments the fact that there is no Jewish temple for her son to make Bar Mitzvah.
In a light-hearted manner, the author reveals how her family worked through these obstacles with eventual understanding and grace.
The conditions are difficult, discrimination and prejudice are especially directed to Jewish, Catholic and people of color. The Klu Klux Klan is alive and well, approving or disapproving what they choose.
Aaron, however, is a patient and intelligent business man and in just a short period of time his "Jew Store" aka Bronson's Low Priced Store is in business and providing dry goods to farm families in the area.
All is not well with his wife, Reba. She misses the closeness of extended family and doesn't understand the Southern way of life. She laments the fact that there is no Jewish temple for her son to make Bar Mitzvah.
In a light-hearted manner, the author reveals how her family worked through these obstacles with eventual understanding and grace.
ashleyjean6's review against another edition
3.0
The Jew Store by Stella Suberman was a recommendation I came across on GoodReads. After about 50 pages I wasn’t loving this book. The story was interesting enough, but the writing wasn’t too stellar. But I have a problem. Once I start a book I find it very hard not to finish it. Even a bad book I usually will read to the end. If I don’t finish a book, then it is wretched! Anyway, I’m glad I finished this one. It got better as the author wrote. I think once she was writing about events and memories that she was a part of, not just early family stories before her birth, the book improved. Towards the end the plot thickens, a bit, and the read becomes more narrative and interesting. It wasn’t a great book, not one I’d recommend if you’re short on time for reading. But it was OK, I liked it enough. I wont however be searching high and low for other books by this author.
mimiep's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
kdferrin's review against another edition
5.0
I find books about the Jewish experience fascinating and this family memoir is no exception. It tells the story of a Jewish immigrant family who in the 1920’s moves away from their tight knit Jewish family in New York City to a small Tennessee town where they will be the only Jewish people in order to have the opportunity to have a dry goods store of their own. It is a great “American Dream” story and the dreamer is not only a driven and hardworking man but also a great family man who truly loves his wife and children and only wants the best for them. I had a little bit harder time with the mother. Though I could greatly sympathize with how difficult it would be to in her situation I did occasionally find her attitudes and actions a bit frustrating. It was interesting to see how her identity was so tied to being Jewish despite her seeming indifference to the actual religion and how that affected her relationship with her new community and how it affected her children as they developed far more “American” attitudes being raised among Gentiles. This memoir is easy to read and has a good mix of funny, sweet, touching, inspiring, and heartbreaking moments.
saltyseaghost's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
halkid2's review against another edition
3.0
Stella Suberman’s relates the saga of her parents’ efforts to establish and run a discount store in the small Tennessee town of Concordia, much like many other Jewish families did in the years before the depression. For a time, it was fairly typical for small southern towns to have their own “Jew store.”
From Suberman’s story we learn what it’s like to live as the only Jewish family in the God-fearing Christian south, where the KKK still wields strong influence and the prejudice against Jews is obvious, overt and ubiquitous.
Many of the problems that surface are predictable. What happens when the author’s father, Mr. Bronson decides to offer a white person’s sales position to a capable black man? How does a Jewish family accomplish their son’s coming-of age Bar Mitzvah if there is no place to study the Torah? What do parents do when they want their children to marry within the faith but there are no other Jewish families for miles?
This is a fast and easy read, not particularly emotional or deep. But it does present a little known slice of Americana.
From Suberman’s story we learn what it’s like to live as the only Jewish family in the God-fearing Christian south, where the KKK still wields strong influence and the prejudice against Jews is obvious, overt and ubiquitous.
Many of the problems that surface are predictable. What happens when the author’s father, Mr. Bronson decides to offer a white person’s sales position to a capable black man? How does a Jewish family accomplish their son’s coming-of age Bar Mitzvah if there is no place to study the Torah? What do parents do when they want their children to marry within the faith but there are no other Jewish families for miles?
This is a fast and easy read, not particularly emotional or deep. But it does present a little known slice of Americana.
jkrnomad's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fascinating memoir of growing up in the Deep South during the 1920's. The Bronson family has to deal with layer after layer of American culture, first in New York City, where they find a tight immigrant community, and then in rural Tennessee where they are the only Russian Jewish immigrants and complete outsiders.
ladymedievalist1's review
5.0
A comfortable read. It was a lovely memoir, and the author clearly had some fond memories of her childhood in the South (although there were some that were less pleasant). This book is a testament to how fascinating a normal human life can be-- I mean, this story felt like a novel, but it was real life. Also have to say how much I loved the way Suberman writes, with her quaint metaphors and similes (and I mean "quaint" in the best possible way). She truly conjures up images of the 1920s in a beautifully nostalgic way, and she does similarly well with her parents' stories (I daresay I've learned a few words of Yiddish in the process of reading her book). A lovely summer read, which I recommend.
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