Published in 1920, this is a collection of short stories set among the Jewish immigrant community of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The privations and the struggle to survive are paramount- poverty, wage cuts, long days slaving in a factory, the authoritarian and judgemental public assistance ladies.
But the author focusses too on the inner person- the dreams (in the face of the awful reality); dowry-less girls dream of love; others yearn for education and better things.
Yezierska actually succeeded in these things, rising from the NY ghetto to Hollywood, as her book was made into a silent movie. In the last three stories she lets us into the change in circumstances - the alienation from her people as she gains wealth (while remaining an outsider to the new crowd); the difficulty in sustaining a relationship when writing takes pre-eminence; and the uselessness that comes with old age...
Simple yet moving, these tales bring to life a forgotten world. ( )

The writing was quite simple, but it gave an excellent picture of the life of immigrants to this country in the 1920's. It provided much for me to think about, and I wonder whether immigrants have it much better today. The book is comprised of short stories, all of which I found interesting. Yezierska lived such a life, which I prefer over a book written by someone imagining how these people live. ( )

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.