Old World, New World: A Novel

Plot

This is the story of the Lieber family, beginning with Jacob Lieber in 1906, his wife and brother-in-law, and the gnerations that follow them, almost to the end of the 20th Century. There are 15 main characters, but there is no difficulty in keeping them straight, due to the luminous, tender writing of Mark Dintenfass. Their joys and heartaches, their aspirations and frustrations, their relationships with family members and others--all of it is rendered with such authenticity that the characters in more recent books of other authors seem shallow, indeed. Pearl with a silver mink stole over a garish green dress looks like "a gilded frog." Sixteen-year-old Heinie with fingernails bitten down to the half-moons smokes on a tenement roof, mugs people for their wallets, breaks into the zoo. Sam, "red-haired" and "gap-toothed" grows up to own a chocolate factory that serves as the center of the Lieber family for decades. From Brooklyn to Great Neck to Florida, the family grows and ages and moves with the times and we are privileged to experience their journey.