Anzia Yezierska was a very well known writer about the Jewish immigrant experience in the early part of the 20th Century, to the extent that her stories were made into movies. Hungry Hearts is a collection of her short stories which are mostly variations on a theme: a young Jewish girl in Russia dreams of freedom of the soul and intellect in America, but when she gets here finds instead only the soul-crushing reality of drudgery in the sweat shops. However, these girls never let go of their dreams . . . dreams of artistic freedom, romantic love or, in one story, simply a friend to share her emotions and experiences with. Sounds a bit corny to our modern sensibilities, maybe, but Yezierska is able to bore down so close to her protagonist's deepest feelings with very simple language (although skillfully rendered into a believable but not impenetrable Yiddish accent) that the emotionalism is kept to a minimum. We get a true, if slightly overwrought, sense of what our grandparents (for those of us of European immigrant stock) went through, the highs and lows of expectations, dreams and realities of the desperate dash to America. It should give many of us a firmer grasp on the bounties they earned for us to enjoy. ( )

Raw. ( )

This is an amazing novel of a female Jewish Russian immigrant experience. I was thoroughly touched by every word of this novel which speaks not only for the immigrant but also for the dreams, experiences, and disappointments of the native born poor. I couldn't put this book down. This collection of stories was first published in 1920 but speaks just as clearly and truly today as it did then. It's been a long time since I read a novel that has tugged at my heart the way this one did. Highly recommended.