The Immigrant's Daughter

Lavette Family #5

by Howard Fast

In this triumphant conclusion to the Lavette saga, Howard Fast brings the story up to the present, to the fourth generation. As Dan Lavette dominated The Immigrants, so his eldest child, Barbara, is the focus of this wide-ranging and passionate novel.

After a life filled with danger, love and death, Barbara, now in her sixties, is living a simple life in San Francisco. And then, almost on a whim, she runs for Congress and sets in motion a series of adventures that brings her back to the excitement of the times, to a renewal of romantic love, to mortal danger as a reporter in Central America, to loss and tragedy, and in the end, to an exultant embracing of life.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Novels, Historical Romance

277 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Howard Fast was one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century. He was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. The son of immigrants, Fast grew up in New York City and published his first novel upon finishing high school in 1933. In 1950, his refusal to provide the United States Congress with a list of possible Communist associates earned him a three-month prison sentence. During his incarceration, Fast wrote one of his best-known novels, Spartacus (1951). Throughout his long career, Fast matched his commitment to championing social justice in his writing with a deft, lively storytelling style.

Pseudonyms: Walter Ericson, E.V. Cunningham

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've just leaned that there is a sixth book in this series, but I don't think I'll read it. While I enjoyed the previous four, the fifth started to annoy me. I could tell it was a man writing a woman's voice and it was just a little too much about how old Barbara Lavette is and about how she isn't attracting men any more.

[Carolyn Pina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Book 5 of The Immigrant Series, and I found it somewhat disappointing. The preceding four books, I liked very much -- so to find this one lacking surprised me.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

IMMENSELY ENTERTAINING.

“…old age is a country you never visit until you come to settle there.” (Kindle Location 366)

Another piece of stellar storytelling from the prolific pen of Howard Fast, The Immigrant’s Daughter (Lavette Family #5) is an immensely entertaining, cinematic read. A very worthy compliment to the Lavette Family saga.

Recommendation: I highly recommend this series for pleasure reading with especially interesting historical leanings.

“But wisdom sucked out of the marrow of defeat and humiliation is no halo.” (Kindle Location 2,525)

Open Road Media. Kindle Edition, 382 pages, 5,607 Kindle Locations

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even if this series is composed by 6 books and I started to read through the fifth one, I am considering as reading the whole series. Nothing extraordinary brings me further interest in completing the whole saga.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 books down, 1 book to go. It has been a great read to end 2017. I am really going to miss this family. The story line and characters have only gotten better with each book.

[Harry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This soap opera is the fifth in a six-part series on the extended Lavette-Levy family, a multicultural (WASPs, Hispanics, Jews, Chinese, Italians) in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1970s. Although “The Immigrant’s Daughter” is the only book I have read (or will ever read) in the series, it was not too hard to understand the back story with the help of a family tree in the back of the book. This novel focusses on Barbara Lavette, a descendant of the founders of a prosperous winery and an exceptional woman who is now in her 60s. Barbara, who has been married twice and has had two long-term romantic relationships, constantly laments how old she is. Yet every man she meets falls in love with her. The book can be divided into two parts: 1) Barbara’s run for Congress and 2) Barbara’s activism on behalf of the oppressed Salvadoran people.
I assume Barbara reflects the author’s left-wing politics. Barbara comes across as preachy and strident. There is had not been one president, from Truman through Reagan, that she can stomach. Mr. Fast, tell us how you really feel about the Vietnam War! And while Barbara put her life in jeopardy trying to expose the brutal, fascist government in El Salvador, not a word is said about the working conditions of the Hispanics who pick the grapes on her family’s winery. There is no overall plot to this book, just a continuation of the family saga. While the narrative is mostly written in the third person, it sometimes jumps to the first person. And then there is the issue of Fast trying to write from a woman’s viewpoint. If this is any indication of the rest of the series, don’t bother.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fifth novel in the Lavette Family saga covers the 1970s and a smidgeon into the 80s. It was meant to be the final novel in the series, having been published in 1985 and thereby bringing the story up to the (then) present day. However, there would be one more, published in 1997, presumably adding further to the events of the family now that real time had passed by.

I’ve enjoyed this view of over a century of American history through the eyes of an immigrant family. However, I must say, I enjoyed the first four books better than this one. Here, we once again focus on Barbara Lavette, now in her 60’s. Her age is a major point of the story now as she struggles with what to do with the rest of her life. She is not one to retire and knit by the fireplace as she puts it. So she searches for more. A run for the US House of Representatives and a gig as a newspaper correspondent in El Salvador occupy her main efforts in this regard. Her politics are straight-up liberal and it’s clear the author uses her to expound his own thoughts on the state of the world. I can absorb all of that but almost the entire book is a downer. Barbara is just not happy and wallows in her memories of past loves and mistakes. Those family members around her are all going through divorces or traversing their own pits of despair. It is only with the final few pages that she comes out of her funk and becomes content.

I’ll certainly read the final book in the series to see how it all ends. Howard Fast is a fine writer and presents his stories much like a sweeping cinematic movie in which it is easy to get captured. I do, however, hope for a more positive story to experience.

[LauraT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbara’s birthday was in November. In the old days, when on the West Coast astrology was becoming a sort of nuthouse religion, people would look at Barbara strangely when she told them her birth date. “Oh, Scorpio.” As if she were an unwelcome visitor to earth. - that's for my son!!!!

"A young captain in the American advisory force spoke to her as he never would have spoken to a male correspondent. “Why?” he pleaded, “why are we always on the side of the shitheads? Forgive me, I get carried away; but just once couldn’t we team up with something different, something more human than these murderous bastards?"

[Fran Gerardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book Fast continues the saga focusing on Dan's daughter, Barbara. Barbara, a feminist, is a leader for civil rights, gay rights and women's rights. As she ages she is determined to keep her hand in what is happening around her rather than curl up by the fireplace and knit, as she put it. She gets involved in the local civil war of El Salvador and witness the atrocities that man can inflict on another human being. Outraged she come back home determined to help stop all future injustices. She gets involved in all this after she loses the vote to be the first woman congressman in CA in the 48th district.
While the saga is good, after 5 books there is a lot of repetition.

[Diana Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read The Immigrant many, many years ago and I did enjoy the story. I admit I skipped books 2-4 of the family saga and life goes on with this group. For some reason the author seems to be fixated on Don Quixote like many references to tilting with windmills and even mentioned the title twice. I didn't really find any extra ordinary or earth shaking going on in the story and it was rather boring.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A continuation of the Lavette/Levy family series with emphasis on Barbara Lavette. I liked this one a lot. The characters throughout the series get numerous but not so that you cannot keep up with them. Also, there are family trees to reference in each book. I am now going on to #6, An Independent Woman, which will finish this series.

[Omri Flicker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy the sagas, but books 1 and 2 were much better. Each of the books has some interesting parts, but now I'm kind of just reading them because I'm hooked on the characters and a bit of OCD is pushing me to finish the 6 books.

[Rose Mccrink · Rating 2 out of 5]

So disappointed in this book. The first 4 books were so good. I’m convinced it was written by someone else! Dragged on and on endlessly and what was the incessant reference to older women all about. The series should have finished with book 4

[Tanja · Rating 3 out of 5]

While parts were still very good, I didn't find the last book of the series as impressive as the other ones.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

One more to go to finish this saga, highly recommend them.

[Anne Vandenbrink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barbara runs for Congress on a whim. She also renews her relationship with Carson and goes to El Salvador to cover the war.

[Mary Harvey Gurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed this series very much. I had never read any of Fast's work and plan to study more.

[Willie Kirschner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed reading this series and can relate to the story. I am looking forward to completing the series and moving on to more of his books, which I have not yet read.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have so enjoyed this series about the Lavette family by Howard Fast-until The Immigrant's Daughter. Too much of politics and too preachy. I was glad to be done with the book.

[Chic]

Another good read from this 6 book series. This one started telling about Barbara (the original Lavette's daughter), book 6 con't with her. All good.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

got way to political

Did not enjoy as much as book 1 2 3. 4 which i rated 5. Book 5 i rated 2 as it become way to political. Lost interest and most likely will not read book 6

[Rox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read in a six book series. Writer Howard Fast tells a good historic story with believable characters. The main character travels to San Salvador where there is political unrest. Was interesting to me particularly because my great granddaughter's paternal family is from there.

[Graceann · Rating 4 out of 5]

In what was originally planned as the conclusion to the Lavette Saga, Barbara Lavette runs for public office and learns some interesting things about herself and her family. THE IMMIGRANT'S DAUGHTER was intended to conclude this sprawling family series, but Howard Fast came back several years later with AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN.

Barbara finds herself growing ever older and more confused, as the people she has loved for most of her life pass on, and her son becomes more of a stranger to her. She loses herself in the run for office, and discovers that public life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Also included is an adventure in El Salvador at a most turbulent time.

Howard Fast does not disappoint in his ability to tie together many loose threads. He also makes no apologies for his political leanings - he has a definite point of view in his fiction, and it is strongly evident here. I'm already sorry that there is only one more book in the series. I will be sorry to say goodbye to these people.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do love this series about the Lavette Family!

Although Fast originally planned this book, published in 1985, as the last in the series, he went on to write "An Independent Woman," published in 1997.

"The Immigrant's Daughter" opens on Barbara Lavette's 60th birthday in 1974. Son Sam is an orthopedic surgeon.

Much of this installment is devoted to Barbara's Congressional campaign as an anti-war candidate in San Francisco's 48th district where a Democrat has never been elected. Her campaign -- not surprisingly -- reaches out to those ignored by their current representation: the poor, the working class and young professionals who outnumber the rich in the district. With so many high school and college volunteers involved, her campaign reminds me of Obama's.

Ford includes a thoughtful commentary on the reality and unreality of serving in Congress and why nothing ever gets done in terms of significant change. Sigh.

Another chunk of this book concerns the politics of El Salvador. Barbara becomes a correspondent there, an unwise choice to be sure.

[Carolynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barbara Lavette, a grieving widow in her sixties, is living a simple life in San Francisco. A strongman in the local political scene pressures her to run for Congress. She loses again and again, but he keeps pressuring her to run.

Meanwhile, she resents everyone in her family for marrying people she considers beneath her, often due to their race. In fact, the very obvious racism and classism in this book really detracted from the story. Barbara's son wants to be close to her, but does nothing but criticize her. Barbara has a grudge against her brother and forbids anyone she knows to associate with him, but allows her campaign manager to accept a large contribution from him.

The book is full of contradiction and prejudice. I accidentally returned this to the library before I finished reading it, but since I could not enjoy or respect any of the characters, it was no great loss to miss the ending.

[Terri Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last of The Immigrant's series, this book left me hanging with not a very cohesive ending, but I have subsequently learned there is another "conclusion" written years later. Although I am deeply involved with all the characters, this book left me feeling a bit depressed; too many allusions to aging, getting old, feeling useless. Although these realities are confronting Barbara Lavette, I feel that age is not looked upon as "drying up" , as she feels even in the setting of the 1980's. I've come to know the author's beliefs through his characters, all of them Democratic peace activists if I must put labels on. And I've enjoyed knowing the writer well enough to know that when a new character is introduced the very next sentence will give a description of their height and facial features. Still, I've been captivated with this family from Book One and Howard Fast does not disappoint.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is actually a five series book starting with the Immigrant By Howard Frost. I was given these books by a patient of my husbands to read. I really did'nt think I would like it but I was pleasantly surprised. I read one after another. The Immigrant, Second Generation, The Establishment, The Legacy, The immigrants Daughter. People loved Barbra Levette (The immigrants Daughter) so much he wrote a book about her called An Independent Woman. If you find the time read these books they are amazing.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the 5th book in the Lavette series. I found it was a little too political and hanging on all the events of the last four books. Barbara Lavette runs for Congress, still looking for love, and still fighting for her causes. This was my least favorite books of this series.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put this series down once I started reading it. I was given the first three books in this series as a gift and was hooked as soon as I started reading them. I could not wait for the 4th book of this series to be published!

[Brett]

Fiction