Book summary

Eating a seeded role sends this memoirist back in time to the New York City of the 1940s where, a Polish Jewish refugee, he grew up among a Jewish community bent on survival. Berger explores the lives of his parents prior to World War II, depicting his European heritage through anecdotes.

Media reviews

"There is something strangely attractive in Berger's stories of the poverty and simple pleasures of his childhood. Without romanticizing his early life, he is able to make us feel how lovely a Sunday walk in the park is when you work in a sweatshop six days a week and how tasty an egg is when you only get to have two a year. In the midst of shame, hunger and alienation, there is the solace of family, tradition and the occasional pastrami sandwich, this last a pleasure that cannot be known by those of us who could have one every day if we wanted."