Rivington Street

Rivington Street #1

by Meredith Tax

This sprawling historical novel follows the fortunes of four enterprising, courageous Jewish women on New York's Lower East Side. Hannah Levy masterminds her family's escape, despite her radical husband's objections, from czarist Russia after the Kishinev pogroms; elder daughter Sarah becomes a union organizer and a socialist while the younger Ruby rises to the top of the fashion design world; their friend Rachel abandons her ultra-Orthodox background to go to work for the Jewish Daily Forward. Through their lives, loves, and convictions, Meredith Tax draws the reader irresistibly into the explosive events that shaped women's possibilities in the early twentieth century. An absorbing, epic novel, "Rivington Street" is also suitable for use as a classroom text.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, New York

432 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1982

About the author

Meredith Tax has been a writer and political activist since the late 1960s. She was a member of Bread and Roses, an early socialist-feminist group in Boston, and her 1970 essay, “Woman and Her Mind: The Story of Everyday Life,” is considered a founding document of the US women’s liberation movement. She was active in the antiwar movement and the left in the Seventies, when she worked in several factories and as a nurses’ aide in Chicago and was active in the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union.

See author's blog for more: http://www.meredithtax.org/biography/bio

Reviews

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Susan Lerner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book I really enjoy which is rarely published anymore. A family saga with multiple storylines and a great deal of history and information about a technical area, in this case, dressmaking and the thinking behind changing fashion designs. It also covers the history of the labor movement, from the early 1900s starting with the Bund in Russia and then all the unions in New York. It also has some women's rights history. When I finished I wanted to know more about the characters and am delighted there is a sequel, but while Rivington is available on Kindle, the sequel is only available from used bookstores.

[Ashna Chowdhury · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was extraordinary... Meredith Tax does such a seemingly effortless and almost impossible job of giving the reader a broad sense of the era and its politics, as well as a personal visceral pulse of being alive through those times. Every character felt real and familiar, and its so great to see fully-fleshed out female characters against the background of such exciting historic events as the suffragette movement and labor organization in America. I later found out that Meredith is a feminist historian (which makes perfect sense), in addition to being an incredible storyteller.

Highly recommend this book.

[Tara Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorite books. Hard to find (I own a very frayed copy), but an inspiring book showing the strength of the Jewish women of New York at the turn of the century.

[Lamay · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHAT AN AMAZING BOOK!

Meredith Tax did her research, but there are certain emotions in here that can't be captured by research. Beautiful from the writing to the storyline.

[Nightwitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sprawling historical novel featuring the rise (and occasional fall) of a Jewish family who emigrate to New York. It's engrossing and well-written but didn't quite connect with me the way some of my favorite novels have. It felt in some way like there were too many characters having too many things happen to them. The author had so much to cover that sometimes she was just wedging characters into scenarios. It also felt, emotionally, a little like reading Kathleen Norris, a nineteenth-century author who liked to write romance novels in which the hero basically proves to be a doofus who requires his wife to deal with his inadequacy. Like, the moral of a Kathleen Norris novel is usually: the rich are morally bankrupt and men are unreliable. That's kind of what this felt like. Most of the male characters were disappointments (or absolutely horrible), and the lesbian character, somewhat bewilderingly, settled for being in unrequited love with her sister-in-law, which I actually found kind of creepy and invasive, as well as sad when looking at an era when the Boston marriage was alive and well (and mentioned in the text!). Like, does anyone get to be happy at the end and have a really rewarding, fulfilling emotional relationship with another person, whether romantic/platonic/filial? I don't know, kind of? But "kind of" just doesn't do it for me when reading a novel.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Meredith Tax follows a family of three daughters from a shtetl in the Pale of Settlement where their father was a revolutionary. When the eldest daughter is raped and murdered during the Kishinev pogrom, the family decides to leave Russia behind and we follow them to the bowels of NYC and eventually to the vibrant Jewish immigrant community of the Lower East Side. Each of the daughters takes a different path -- so we learn about the garment trade, sweatshops, unions, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, as well as the suffrage movement and the wealthier Jews who dominated the retail trade (think Bloomingdales and Macy's).Tax writes smoothly and has done intensive research -- sometimes the research shows through rather than being woven into the narrative. And I found the "solution" for the family's misfortunes and the daughters' sadnesses being found in a relationship with a good man, a little much. Especially when the young women set out to be independent and disparage the traditional bonds of marriage. Still a great read, and a vibrant depiction of Jewish immigrant life in NY, especially the politics but even the corruption, compelling.

[Cory Boissonneault · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really enjoyable, an interesting that anyone would like to learn a bit of 1900's history. This is a saga of different characters and their journey in America. The books has different plot lines for the characters and drawing each character into following into the moment of history. Bring us into the Shirtwaist movement to suffrage movement and into WW1. When I read, the book I get to learn out the events happening and see that they bring something out in the character to change themselves from how the were to see something different how, it played out in the beginning of the book.

[Karen Feinblatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story about Jewish immigrants on the lower east side of Manhattan and the beginnings of the garment industry unions.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an eye opening book for me in high school/early college. Set on the East Side, Rivington Street is the story of Russian Jewish Immigrants in the early 20th century. Hannah Levy takes her family from Russia to New York to escape the pogroms. In New York, they all take different paths. Sarah follows her fathers lead, becoming a union organizer after the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy. Ruby parlays her talents into becoming a fashion designer. Their friend Rachel falls in love with an upper class man, and marries to escape her old life. Throughout the story, Tax weaves in a significant amount of history from this timeframe - the Russian Revolution, suffragism, rise of union, Fredrick Taylor, the Bund, Tamany Hall...all are touched on. At times the history is a little too much telling, not enough showing. But overall an enjoyable read.

[Lew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I've known about for a long time, finally decided to read since March 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The fire killed 146 people who worked at the factory, mostly young immigrant women from Italy or Eastern Europe/Russia. Meredith Tax captures the time period very well in creating a story of a family fleeing pogroms in the Ukraine to settle in the lower east side of New York. The main character becomes a leader in the struggle to organize garment workers at the Triangle plant.

[Olivia Głąb · Rating 3 out of 5]

You would think that someone named Meredith Tax would write books about taxes ;) Something like: http://programpit.biz/jak-uzyc-progra..., but no ;). That book is completly different. And I had a lot of fun reading it :)

[Estelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women of strength and faith as they navigate their lives from the pogroms of Russia to the lower east side. Very touching I got to know each character in depth. The history was accurate and detailed. I enjoyed this read.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining, with a rather graphic description of a pogrom in the beginning, but that was the emotional high point for me.

[Shawnee E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book and it's sequel are absolutely amazing.

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. I was hoping for a grownup "All of a Kind Family" but this was sadder and also political. I couldn't really connect with any of the sisters, and by p. 100 I gave up.

[Pam G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of life on the Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th Century.