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Loading... Fanny Herself (1917)by Edna Ferber
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. If I had read this instead of listening, I might have been more engaged with the story. I found it a bit dull. ( ) Fanny Herself is a very special book and one of my favorites. An old-fashioned novel filled with family, love, hard work, determination and wits. Fanny grows up in a supportive small town and is always learning from her daily experience and mostly from her larger than life mom. A hard but busy and fulfilling life pushes many dreams and feelings to the side to focus on the practical. Eventually... feelings have a way of catching up. Read this book. Its a treat, a roadmap for life and a gift from Ferber to her readers. Excellent! Interesting early 1900's story of a middle-American young Jewish girl setting out to claim success for herself in the opportunity-heavy world of business, mostly as a direct response to a childhood of sacrifice that did not fare well for her mother and a determination to blaze a different trail. Of course, women were not major players in business, yet she refused to buy into that and fought her way forward anyway. Lots of talk about Jewish identity, is it a race or religion, and quite a bit of denial of her roots....all with mixed results. Women's suffrage, worker's rights, zealous capitalism, and the start of WWI all made for a much headier book than i was anticipating from Ferber, having read several of hers already. Apparently a fair amount of autobiographical content in the initial setting of the story. I enjoyed Ferber's folksy writing style probably more than i enjoyed this story...she has a very charming way of writing that makes it feel like just the two you are sitting in a comfortable room somewhere and she is recounting this story to you in person.....warm, judgmental, intimate, and very honest. No regrets. I'll admit it. I love old-fashioned novels. This one concerns a small town girl who makes it big in Chicago in the brand new field of the mail order catalog. She tries mightily to submerge her passionate human side in order to be a success in this male field. She does find success, but also finds she is losing her soul to Big Business. A boy from her small town home helps her find her way. Interesting look at small town Jewish culture before WWI. no reviews | add a review
It was about this time that Fanny Brandeis began to realize, actively, that she was different. Of course, other little Winnebago girls' mothers did not work like a man, in a store. And she and Bella Weinberg were the only two in her room at school who stayed out on the Day of Atonement, and on New Year, and the lesser Jewish holidays. Also, she went to temple on Friday night and Saturday morning. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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