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Evergreen
by
Belva Plain
The towering modern classic of passion and ambition that forever changed the way we see the courageous immigrants who came to America's shores -- the story of Anna Friedman transfixes us with the turbulent emotions of a woman and her family touched by war, tragedy, and the devastating secrets of one forbidden love... bittersweet and evergreen.
From the Paperback editi...more
From the Paperback editi...more
Paperback, 698 pages
Published
December 16th 2009
by Dell
(first published 1978)
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List
I could see why some might like this. Sometimes you're in the mood for a long trashy wallow, and this could deliver it. Here you have nearly 700 pages of eye-straining small font about a Polish Jew, Anna, who comes to America not long after the turn of the 20th Century in the years before World War I. She starts out living with her cousin on Hester street, and I imagine many might have seen the stories of their own grandmothers and great-grandmothers in Anna when this was published. I can unders...more
I started reading this book because I got the book "Complete Idiot's Guide The Ultimate Reading List". It was the first book on the Popular fiction list. I vaguely remembered seeing it before but it looked like my kind of book - big, juicy, multi-generational saga.
It is. Following Anna as she grows up in Europe, comes to America, and has the whole immigrant experience. Living in the poor Jewish section of New York, going to work as a maid in a wealthy household (attracting the...more
It is. Following Anna as she grows up in Europe, comes to America, and has the whole immigrant experience. Living in the poor Jewish section of New York, going to work as a maid in a wealthy household (attracting the...more
There are books that may not be written with great 'literary' style, but which are nevertheless written with a talent for good, sincere storytelling. EVERGREEN is one such novel, and it belongs on a shelf with similar novels such as Colleen McCullough's THE THORN BIRDS and Rosamund Pilcher's THE SHELL SEEKERS, wonderfully entertaining family sagas spanning generations and often continents as well, peopled with colorful characters and chronicling the universal joys and sorrows of life.
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This is one of my favorite books of all time. My mother gave me a copy when I was a teenager and I stayed up late many nights reading under the covers long after I should have been asleep. It is a sweeping family saga full of characters you care about, and whom you will miss when you put this book back on the shelf. Anna, Paul and Joseph are real people with real flaws, a refreshing change from the perfect protagonists that Danielle Steele is famous for (and who happen to bug the heck out of me)...more
Geez Louise, I feel like I deserve an award for getting through this whole novel. At first, I thought this book would be like a doughnut, light and fluffy with no real substance, but still sweet and delicious. But it wasn't like that at all. It was like one of those dense and heavy power bagels with nuts and dried fruit. Not that it was a difficult read or anything. It was quite simple language and actually the earnest and sincere way in which Belva Plain told the story was one of the thing...more
Currently reading it. Good enough epic novel. Has kept me in there. I like books about olden times as you get to learn about history as well. I love reading about the way people lived back when. This story is about one womans life from being a child in Poland, orphaned because of a cholera epidemic at about 1890. Then when she was 16 made her passage to America in search of a better life.She has a family goes from absolute poverty to being upper middlerclass by sheer hardwork. Survives the Depre...more
I just loved this book. The characters were so real to me and getting to know each of them made me want to know more about them.
Anna, yearning for a more and better life, flees Poland to go to America. She comes to New York and moves in to live with cousin Ruth and husband, Solly Levinson, 4 children and 6 boarders. She worked sewing to make a living. She went to a school to learn more and met a wonderful teacher, Ms. Thorne. Becoming restless with sewing, Anna found a job as a maid ...more
Anna, yearning for a more and better life, flees Poland to go to America. She comes to New York and moves in to live with cousin Ruth and husband, Solly Levinson, 4 children and 6 boarders. She worked sewing to make a living. She went to a school to learn more and met a wonderful teacher, Ms. Thorne. Becoming restless with sewing, Anna found a job as a maid ...more
This is an extraordinary book with Anna coming to America from Poland. To take the jouney through the eyes of someone else is amazing and to live in New York City when it was just being settled is something to behold. I loved her adventures in this country; but, was sorry for Anna when she married someone she was not in love with at the time. I do understand that she did grow to love her husband or how else would she be able to stay with him. I thought sure when she was pregnant with her lov...more
While the plot is full of changes and twists and historical detail is accurate, and characters are believable enough; I found the writing style lacking. You hear what the characters say, but there is no insight into how they think, except for some "corny" (good word, Helen!) lines with exclamation marks. While the book has lots of content and action, it lacks in warmth and emotion. I was surprised that Anna quit her job in the first place, nothing indicated any emotional turmoil pre...more
In 1985, NBC aired a miniseries based on Belva Plain's novel Evergreen. I know I watched it and loved it. I also know that I read most of the book and loved it but wasn't able to finish it. I can't quite remember the order of events of whether I saw the movie first or read the book first but I can tell you that the book made enough of an impression on me that I've been wanting to re-read and finally finish the book for the last twenty-three years.
After re-reading it I have come to tw...more
After re-reading it I have come to tw...more
OK, I must confess I have a thing for those cheesy family sagas they sell in grocery store checkout lines. This one is pretty old -- I think it was turned into a tv miniseries with Lesley Ann Warren in the 1970's -- but somehow I never got around to reading it until now. As cheesy family sagas go, it's pretty enjoyable. The story is about a Jewish woman who immigrates to the US in the early 1900's. She rises up from poverty, marries one man and loves another, and raises a couple of children ...more
This popular book came out in 1973 and tells the story of a young girl who immigrates to the US by herself and makes her life in NY city. As I was reading, I kept thinking that I had read this before. I think it is so similar to many novels about immigrants that it just seemed familiar. As a maid in a wealthy household, she falls in love with their son. At least he
didn't get her pregnant as in most of these novels--well, at least not until
she was married to someone else... ...more
didn't get her pregnant as in most of these novels--well, at least not until
she was married to someone else... ...more
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Well, I am not sure how many stars to give this one because I read it when I was in high school and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread... However, rereading some of other Belva Plain titles when I got older revealed that her writing style is kind of corny, and that I don't like it as much as I imagined I did... I love family sagas, so this one fits right in. In addition I like sagas with sequels and this one fits in too... Maybe one day I will reread it and then give it a rating......more
Okay, so when I first started this book I thought it would be an epic about the courage and spirit that comes shining through as people face the hardships that life has to offer. As it turned out it is not all that deep and has a real soap opera feel to it. Yuck, disappointment abounds. Slam! (that was the book closing in frustration) No I am not finishing it. It is a waste of time and there are good things to read all around. So it is onward for me.
My mom loaned me this book and said it was one of her all-time favorites. I enjoyed it, especially how it related to our time; they having gone through "The Great Depression" and our own country going through and economic depression right now. I also enjoyed the geneology of the family, but was a bit surprised by the adultery.
This is one of my favorite books of all time. I stumbled upon this book as a teenager and stayed up many a nights to complete this book. It is one of those books that I come back to time & again. The characters are some that you end up caring about deeply ~ read this book - you will understand my stance!
Read this 25 or 30 years ago and have read it at least 3 times since. I love it and it is the book that got me hooked on Belva Plain. This book is exactly the kind of historical fiction that keeps me turning pages way past my bedtime.
This was one of the first "grown-up" books I read. My mom had read it and I begged her to let me read it. I was hooked and never went back to those "kiddy" books. lol
Great book, lots of history without being boring.
Great book, lots of history without being boring.
An epic tale of a family of immigrants who fled to America in the wake of the rise of the Nazis that sweeps through to the Vietnam War. There is so much in this one book that at times it can feel a little overwhelming. Years pass by. Children are suddenly grown. And yet it works. It gives the sense of how quickly things changed in such a short time in America, and along with it, how the grateful immigrants raised families that became less grateful, less appreciative.
Evergreen is a beautiful, dee
Read this in grade 6.
We all did. It was my first epic novel, and I loved it. It was about the coming to America by Jewish immigrants and how the generations evolved.
We all did. It was my first epic novel, and I loved it. It was about the coming to America by Jewish immigrants and how the generations evolved.
The history in this novel was SO interesting. It spans WWI, WWII, the Vietnam War, and up to the 80's. I couldn't read this book and the sequels fast enough.
My morals kept me from reading past about page 72. There are too many good books out there without filth for me to be spending my time with on one with filth.
I was worried about this book because it started a little like "The Thornbirds", of which I was not a fan. But this was great. I love these big epic novels that follow a family through a number of generations. My only complaint was that I never had any idea what year it was and I would have liked to know what year it was at the beginning of each chapter or section.
I like multi-generational books and I also like immigrant books. Therefore, I liked this book in general. The turn of the century in America was an interesting time. The book is a little bit too soap opera, however.
Read first years ago and have reread several times. Have pretty much read all of Belva Plains books and enjoyed each one.
A life of a Jewish family through four generations. The main character is anna Friedman, who immigrate to the U.S. from Poland.
Very enjoyable saga spanning generations beginning with beautiful Anna. We just never know how our lives will turn out.
Tries too hard to pack all the tragedy of a family saga into it's pages- it's like the Kennedy saga with poorer immigrants.
This is a big book that is enormous in scope. It is a sweeping novel of the life of a young girl by the name of Anna Friedman. She has come to America from Poland at the turn of the century. The story goes on to document her rise from poverty to a life of wealth. It tells of the men in her life, and of her children. The book covers many decades and is a fascinating look at life in America during those years. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading a big book with a well-develope...more
Good book, but far too much heartbreak for my taste. I was also disappointed at some of the loose ends that did not get wrapped up by the end.
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Belva Plain was a best-selling American author of mainstream women's fiction.
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