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ILev (Israel) (2008/02/12):
This is a novel the will keep the reader turning its pages. First published in 1980, the author received glowing reviews, and the book became a Literary Guild selection. Time has not diminished this well-written novel in terms of its power to entertain the reader.This book is a multi-generational family saga. It begins in Poland, where an ambitious woman named Malka is misunderstood by her family and her community. Forced to marry a man that she does not love, Malka tries to make the most of the hand that she has been dealt. She has a number of children, looking to them for vindication of her ambitions. Unfortunately, Malka has a side of her that is cold and calculating, some might even say evil. When she migrates to America with her husband and children, she sees her dreams and hopes vanish before her very eyes. One by one her children disappear from her life, with the exception of Helen, whom Malka neglected and ignored her entire life...There is an eerie duplication of Malka in Helen's own children.... The book is a funny, clever, and totally enjoyable, bittersweet novel, which details the ups and downs of this crazy, mixed up family that is like so many other families.
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