A LITTLE SLEEP, A LITTLE SLUMBER

It is not easy to convey the very special quality of this in a brief report. It is the sort of book from which you want to tell this story, or that -- in much the same way this reader wanted to share the stories that made up I Remember Mama. Too bad it hasn't a title that catches the heartstrings as that title did, for the text has the same sort of pull. It is Lev Simon's story, as his four sons remembered it- the episodes that bound sons and father in strong bonds of affection and respect and sometimes loving laughter. It is the story- probably- of many Russian Jewish immigrants, become good Americans. It has more of subtlety and less of humor than Anything Can Happen, but -- like that book -- it is the story of the making of an American. The book has a warmth of feeling that Katkov's bitter Eagle At My Eyes lacked. The turns of phrase give a feel of Yiddish dialect without the reader difficulty that actual dialect presents. Don't by-pass this book, but read it, at least in part, in order to get its appeal.