A memoir about Grandma Rose... and many of us have a Grandma Rose in our past. But in general, many of the Jewish immigrants didn't tell their grandchildren that much about their lives upon reaching America and the struggles they faced. It was not the done thing, so it is memoirs like Brownstein's that can fill in the gaps for those of us who'd like to know more about the life of our grandparents.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I think that I probably loved this book mainly because so much of it reflected my own experience with my own grandparents. I think it was extremely niche so not sure if the overall general audience would like it but I was a big fan.

American Born
An Immigrant's Story, a Daughter's Memoir
by Rachel M. Brownstein
Pub Date 30 Mar 2023
University of Chicago Press
Biographies & Memoirs | History | Nonfiction (Adult)



I am reviewing a copy of American Born through University of Chicago Press and Netgalley:


Reiser Thaler arrived alone in New York in 1924, she was only eighteen. She resembled the other Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe who accompanied her. But she already had an American passport tucked in her scant luggage. Reisel had drawn her first breath on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1905, then was taken back to Galicia (in what is now Poland) by her father before she turned two. She was, as she would boast to the end of her days, “American born.”


Rachel M. Brownstein, The distinguished biographer and critic began writing about her mother Reisel during the Trump years, dwelling on the tales she told about her life and the questions they raised about nationalism, immigration, and storytelling. For most of the twentieth century, Brownstein’s mother gracefully balanced her identities as an American and a Jew. Her values, her language, and her sense of timing inform the imagination of the daughter who recalls her in her own old age. The memorializing daughter interrupts, interprets, and glosses, sifting through alternate versions of the same stories using scenes, songs, and books from their time together.



I give American Born five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

While I enjoyed this memoir, I gave it 3 stars because it lacked substance. I don't feel like I got as much out of this woman's story as I could have. It was an easy read but I enjoy books with more descriptive detail.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this memoir.