Knew nothing of Roth other than the marvelous The Radetzsky March until recently reading this one, which suggested more Roth would be worthwhile.This work is quite short; non-fiction - an account of the plight of displaced Jews - primarily leaving eastern Europe in the aftermath of WWI. Roth was from Galicia and understood the challenges and mistreatments of the unassimilated Eastern Jews (not that it was that great for other Jews). Poverty; odd jobs to scratch out a living; the challenges of being the "other". Just comes up again and again, century after century.
Very interesting that Roth is writing this in the 1920s - that element is rather unique - he seems to have a realistic view of the problems ahead (even if he couldn't have predicted the awful turn events actually took).
A bit of an apologist for Russia, as so many were in those days (I think understandably); seems to get a little fuller viewpoint as time passes.
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