Book Clubs
Meeting with book clubs is one of my favorite activities! Contact me at frkraut@gmail.com if you would like me to join your group’s discussion about one or both of my books via Zoom or in-person if circumstances allow. Check out the book club questions below and get your book club discussion going, and feel free to make up your own!
For Book Clubs: Street Corner Dreams
A tale about dreams, love, loss, and identity, Street Corner Dreams is a tragic yet heartwarming story about the immigrant experience and the ways in which people respond to the obstacles thrown at them.
A suspenseful family saga, love story, and gangster tale, wrapped into one great book club read . .
Just before WWI, Golda comes to America yearning for independence, but she tosses aside her dreams of freedom and marries her widowed brother-in-law after her sister dies giving birth to their son, Morty.
In the crowded streets of Brooklyn where Jewish and Italian gangs demand protection money from local storekeepers and entice youngsters with the promise of wealth, Golda, Ben, and Morty thrive as a family. But in the Depression, Ben, faced with financial ruin, makes a dangerous, life-altering choice. Morty tries to save his father by getting help from a gangster friend but the situation only worsens. Forced to desert his family and the woman he loves in order to survive, Morty is desperate to go home. Will he ever find a safe way back? Or has his involvement with the gang sealed his fate?
A work of historical fiction Street Corner Dreams is an exploration of a timeless question: how much do we owe the families that have sacrificed for and shaped us—and does that debt outweigh what we owe ourselves and our own hopes and dreams for a better life?
In How to Make a Life, Ida Amdur and her daughter, Bessie, flee a pogrom in Ukraine for America. Once there, family secrets, betrayals and mistakes made in the name of love undermine the lives of their children and grandchildren, who must take comfort in family bonds and find the courage to forgive. The book is peopled with family members in four generations, giving readers characters to connect with in each generation.
Readers ask, “Which characters are your favorites?” “Do you think Ida ever forgives Bessie?” “Should Faye have given Karen the money to travel to India?” “Which stories are real and came from your family?”
Soon people are relating their own lives to the events and characters in the book. “Ruby reminds me of my aunt or sister or grandmother,” they say. And they share the pains and joys of their own experiences. It is always a warm and intimate conversation with the perceptive and thoughtful readers in book clubs.
“Book clubs seeking lively discussion material about Jewish culture, gang activity, immigrant experience, and Brooklyn ‘s past will find Street Corner Dreamsthoroughly engrossing and filled with points perfect for debate”
“Florence Reiss Kraut’s historical novel Street Corner Dreams captures in all its brilliant detail the life of an immigrant family in Brooklyn, NY, from 1914-1942. Over that period, they experience death and financial troubles, the effects of gangster violence, World Wars and antisemitism, and wonder with fear and uncertainty about how their families back home are affected...A tale about dreams, love, loss, and identity, Street Corner Dreams is a tragic yet heartwarming story about the immigrant experience and the ways in which people respond to the obstacles thrown at them.
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Street Corner Dreams Book Club Discussion Guide
1. When Golda arrives in New York, she faces the difficult choice to marry Ben or let Morty go to an orphanage. What other possibilities did she have, if any? What would you have done?
2. In what ways was Golda’s marriage to Ben different from the arranged marriages that were common to young women at that time?
3. Ben recognizes the difficult choices that he and Golda had at the start of their union, but he declares that he “embraced” the choice and Golda did not. Is this true, and how did that play out in their family life?
4. Love comes up as a question several times in the book. What can we say about whether Golda ever loved Ben? What were her feelings about him? And how did Ben feel about Golda?
5. How was the love of Golda and Ben for one another the same or different from the feelings of Morty and Anna for one another?
6. Morty is eighteen years old before his parents tell him the true story of his birth and Golda’s role. What difference would it have made to Morty if he had been told earlier? Would it have made a difference for Golda and Ben? Is this similar to a family’s choice to tell children they were adopted?
7. Golda’s ambivalence about her lost life opportunities and her feelings for Morty can sometimes make her a difficult character to like. How did you feel about her?
8. Ben and Golda were not religiously observant people, but they often spoke to Rabbi Levy. What role did he play in the family’s life? How was that different from the role that Cousin Surah played? Are there people like that in your life?
9. Morty’s choice to help his father by going to Rudy put him on a dangerous path. Were there other ways he might have helped his father?
10. How do you feel about Morty’s choice to run away to Cincinnati? Were there other ways he could have acted? Do you think he was right not to get in touch with his family or Anna?
11. What role does Sylvia play in the family, before and after Morty leaves New York?
For Book Clubs: How to Make a Life
“An engaging and heartfelt portrayal of intergenerational trauma and hope.”
“. . . an immigrant story that will delight readers interested in how the seed of tragedy in one life takes root to produce hope in the future. Its a full-bodied story that will attract novel readers looking for a read both epic and well grounded in both adversity and recovery.”
“How to Make a Life: A Novel by Florence Reiss Kraut is a beautifully written historical novel that explores family themes and the challenges of emigration. . . . The prose is gorgeous, the narrative voice compelling and hugely observant. The relationships are well-handled and they feel real to readers. There are pathos, realism, and humanity infused in the writing and I found it easy to relate to the characters. How to Make a Life: A Novel is a spellbinding family saga with strong shades of history; it is engrossing and fast-paced.”
How to Make A Life Book Club Discussion Guide
1. How to Make a Life is a book about a large family, and it has many characters over four generations. Which, if any characters did you find particularly appealing or interesting? Why? Did any of them remind you of your own family members? How?
2. How one generation’s choices and actions affect the next generation is an important theme in How to Make a Life. What are the ways this is expressed in the book through the generations? Have you experienced or seen repeated generational themes in your own life and family?
3. Most families have secrets. What were the secrets that Weissman family members kept from one another and what impact did these secrets have?
4. The matriarch of the family, Ida, and her daughter Bessie, have had unimaginable losses in their lives. How did they cope with their losses?
5. In what ways does Ruby’s mental illness affect the family? Do you know someone in your life whose mental health or physical health needs impacted on your family’s functioning? How did this affect your family?
6. Bessie and Abe make a bargain with Victor to get him to marry Ruby? Did they think this was a fair and just bargain? What were the family’s feelings about it? What were the consequences of this agreement?
7. Jenny is the self-described “Watcher” of Ruby. How does this responsibility frame her life? Who benefited from this arrangement? How?
8. Morris has struggled his whole life with making decisions and taking action quickly. How did this affect him and his self-esteem?
9. Jenny’s betrayal of Ruby has an impact on the family. Do you think Ruby knew and if, so, what did it do to her? Who else did it affect in the family?
10. Sarah struggles her whole life with the fear that she is like her mother Ruby. How is she similar to Ruby? How is she different?
11. Why do you think Irene is willing to take responsibility for Charles Conyers, and how does that help her?
12. Faye, in many ways, is a rebel in the family, as shown by her marriage to Angelo. But her decision to give her niece Karen money for a trip to India against Karen's parents’ wishes has enormous consequences. Do you understand Faye’s decision and think you would have made it? What was the impact of the decision on the family, on Faye, on her sisters?