How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley

I honestly liked the start and the end of this book - they were endearing, written in a calm and nice manner, nice to read, even sweet. But there were quite a few problems with the middle of the book, which makes rating the story so hard for me.

And when I say problems, I mean, in the middle of the book the main character just got on his high horse and showed all his nasty colors. It's meant to tell the story of immigrants, but ends up demeaning them. The middle of the book is legit just problematic, and that's that.

Why? Simple reasons:

1. The main character is a Jewish Ukrainian immigrant who says to other Jewish immigrants "you can pray in Hebrew but here we speak English" when they try to speak to him in Hebrew. (And then he accuses some side characters in the story of being bigoted. Huh.)

Basically, "this here is our country", except he's an immigrant too..? I found this very offensive and not very believable. Surely an immigrant wouldn't tell other immigrants to throw their culture into the trash like that..? It's very confusing.

It kind of bothered me that the main character was an immigrant himself, but he judges other immigrants for "not learning the language" and "not abandoning their old ways". It's such a boomer thing to say the American way is the best, and everyone who comes over should just drop their customs and their language, do everything the way the locals do it and even speak English inside their own family home (that was said several times as well.)

2. Plus, every 5 pages you will find "What a wonderful country this is. God bless America." Sigh. I don't mind someone loving their country, but:
- this is an immigrant who was not born there
- let's look at how America's treating immigrants right now and how it looks in this light?
- maybe not every 5 pages? Cause we get the drift and it's getting to be a bit much?

If not for this whole "god bless America" in every chapter and "everyone else lives awful lives so thank god we're in America", I would have given this book 4 stars. But I happen to live "everywhere else", so it's kind of a bit much for me. (To the point where I feel uncomfortable to even give this review. I feel like I might be told to "read my own books" cause I'm a foreigner or something... Let's hope not.)

3. The history of 100 years ago is being told as if it's the same now. "But grandpa, don't they have laws in Russia? Of course they have laws, but they are not meant to protect the Jews. They are held as third class citizens." - sure, that was true in Tzarist Russia. But now? We live in the 21st century, and while Russia may struggle with democracy, it's certainly not the same as it was 100 years ago, and it's not fair to say things like that. In fact, most modern countries had severely racist laws until the middle of the 20th century. In fact, America was segregated (and I'm pretty sure Russia wasn't...) So why tell it in the present tense, when you're telling everything else in the past tense? Why make such an awful stereotype in readers' heads, when, being Westerners, they're already demonizing everyone in Eastern Europe? (I'm not Russian and I'm not defending it for that reason. In fact, my country has been wronged by Russia a lot too. And yet, I don't condone putting a whole culture down like that, when it's unfair. When writing media, we should at least attempt to be objective.)

4. Then there's the whole discourse about "beating sense into your children". The character said "happy to beat you to a bloody pulp" and he's quoting this in a story he's telling to his grand-daughter. Like you'd honestly tell your grand-daughter you threatened to beat her uncle to a bloody pulp? (Shudder. He is also portrayed as a very loving, righteous, wonderful grandfather...)

5. And you must've been expecting this, but the men in the story tell the women to basically suck it up when they're unhappy, and just support the man's dreams. To stop "acting like a spoiled brat". All the points up to here would not be complete without this one. Those values just tend to walk together, it seems.

Onto the good things...

It was an honest sounding and rather sweet story of an immigrant of the end of the 19th century into the US. The life the book is about is so far removed from anything our lives are, it's really something to read and wonder. Poverty, persecution, all told in the simplest of terms and in a simple, warm, and strangely, not really regretful way. It's just that in the 21st century, we sometimes grumble about the most meaningless things, like a delivery that's late or a package of milk that went bad a day before its expiry date. But a hundred years ago people were routinely exploited, killed and persecuted. They are now in some places, but not as universally as they were in the past. Racism, nationalism was the norm. It's hard to imagine what those people went through. So this story made me think about how much we take for granted. Sure, we have problems. Some of them the people of the past will never have faced. But most of us kind of have a really good life, and we don't really remember to value it anymore. So this was what I liked about the book - reminding the reader how good our lives are right now and how some people in other parts of the world still struggle daily, like in the past.

However, the rest of the book, especially after the main character moves to the US, is so incredibly offensive and self-righteous, it just made me sad. I get it that it was meant to be written as a story of Jews migrating to a better life, but it wasn't achieved - I found no compassion for the compatriots, instead just righteous "speak only English here". Yes, it did speak in sad terms about what happened to the Jews, but you don't bemoan horrible things, and then turn around and do the same thing to others yourself.

So my heart breaks that I have to give it such a low rating, especially because I truly did love the honest start of the book and the romantic end of it. There was a lot of heart in the story, that I won't begrudge. I hope the author forgives me for trying to stay objective, although I do understand the goals of the book and the love that was put into it. Even if this was based on a real living person (or generation of people) - there are just some things that should not be carried on in stories. There is no reason to perpetuate these harmful notions.

These are the reasons I am giving the book 2 stars, and I hope I won't get attacked over this. This could have been a wonderful story, and the writing is sweet. It's just that some of the values truly don't belong in the 21st century.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.