The Victory Gardens of Brooklyn (Library of Modern Jewish Literature)

Gerber, Merrill Joan. The Victory Gardens of Brooklyn. Syracuse Univ. (Library of Modern Jewish Literature).Nov. 2007. c.406p. ISBN 978-0-8156-0892-9. $24.95. F

A prequel to Gerber's award-winning The Kingdom of Brooklyn (1992), this work explores the lives of Rachel and Rose, immigrant sisters whose unsatisfactory husbands and arduous lives on New York's Lower East Side become a template for the lives of Rachel's three daughters and her granddaughters as well. Individual chapters are narrated from the very different perspectives of the four main women characters. We see thwarted loves, betrayals by relatives, and the poverty that marks their lives. Both Rachel and her daughter Ava marry for security rather than love; Rachel's spoiled daughter Musetta deliberately weds the man her sister Gilda loves. World War II brings catastrophic changes, taking brothers and sons. Gerber's unblinking portrait of immigrant Jewish lives during the first half of the 20th century creates a realistic view of the complexities of families who for better or worse manage to stay connected by swallowing resentments, coming to terms with life, and trying to achieve some measure of contentment. Recommended for large public libraries and those serving Jewish communities.­Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS