Part 1, From the Subway to the Synagogue, p. 1 - 30. Summary and Analysis

This book is a memoir of growing up poor, Jewish and intellectual in a small, suburban American community in the early part of the 20th Century - specifically, in the years leading up to and during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The author contemplates and explores his feelings of not belonging in the world in which he lives or in the world in which he aspires to live. He explores themes relating to the nature of being an outsider, being Jewish, and being torn between life at home and life "beyond".

The narrative begins with the author's description of his feelings upon returning to Brownsville, the community where he grew up (see "Quotes", p. 6). He lists a number of specific ways the area hasn't...