The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan.
Written in 1917, The Rise of David Levinsky is one of the first examples of American Jewish immigrant fiction. It tells the story of David Levinsky
and his transformation from an observant yeshiva student in the Russian
Pale to a secular business mogul in the United States. Cahan, who
immigrated to the U.S. in 1881, paints a wonderful picture of life in
New York's Lower East Side in the 1880s and 90s and brilliantly
captures the ambivalence the immigrant generation felt towards the
American culture they found themselves in. Although the book is 90 years old it doesn't seem outdated. I was amazed to be taken back to a world that in some ways is so distant but can still be seen today in parts of Jewish American culture.
The Rise of David Levinsky can be found for free online at http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Rise-of-David-Levinsky.html.
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