Combines contemporary interviews and interviews conducted by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s to give a three-generation perspective on the experiences of Irish, Italian, Jewish, and other immigrants to the United States.
The idea of this book is better than the actual book. Many of the stories about the immigrant families to the U.S. are very much the same; I felt I was reading the same story over and over, but the last name was always different or the country from which they came. Perhaps the author lacked detail to fill in the blanks, but it did stir up fun conversation in book club for each of us to share our own ancestry.