The Immigrant Experience: The Anguish of Becoming American

By: Wheeler, Thomas C.

Book Overview

Nine narratives by immigrants and their descendants illuminate the experience of becoming American. Contributors include Czeslaw Milosz, and Mario Puzo.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140154469
• ISBN13: 9780140154467
• Release Date: August 1970
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Honest, Informative, Interesting !

Fantastic set of nine stories told by nine immigrants that went on to become famous in America. From Mario Puzo to William Alfred to Jade Wong, the stories reflect equally strongly, the "American" social and political scenario as they do the ancestral culture of the immigrants. These are definitely stories about "becoming" an American, rather than just the immigrant themselves. Being a first generation immigrant myself(from India), I am often dissapointed by the so-called immigrant novels and books(for ex: Jhumpa Lahiri's relentless efforts to portray Bengali immigrants in *each* of her novels/stories irritate me now). I liked to read about the lives of people that came from places very different from each other, and from America.

The Melting Pot?

The Immigrant Experience is an arresting compilation of stories from a wide range of immigrants and their struggles to survive in an America that turned out to be much more harsh than they expected. The book is divided into sections which makes it easy to read. The table of contents gives a description of the ethnicity the portion is about. The presence of this table also contributes to the underlying theme that despite all efforts, the different cultures were and in many cases are isolated from each other. Each author describes the contribution of their people to the United States, as well as the effect America had on them and their culture. Some stories are based on the weather and harshness of the frontier while others are focused on cities and the ideas that came from many cultures forced together. One is not expected to know a thing about America at the time; it is well described by each author. The opinions in the stories only add to the quality of the book; they do not deter from it. By experiencing life through the memories and experiences of the immigrants, one can begin to understand the reasons for their suffering and why they would agonize so long for the bitter taste of freedom. The lack of conclusion lets the reader form his own opinions about the plethora of biased information in the various sections. Overall, The Immigrant Experience is an interesting source of information about the many ethnicities that inhabit America.