Out of the Bronx, a stunning collection of stories by Jerome Kass, follows Joel Sachs from his childhood and coming of age in the Bronx to his adult life in Manhattan. Along the way we encounter his friends and lovers and, most of all, his painfully sad and funny Jewish family: his father, Lou, an inveterate gambler; his mother, Rose, whose anger toward Lou is often tempered by her need to take care of him; Joel's older sister, Fanny, whose sense of being unloved makes her want to tear the family apart; and his beautiful younger sister, Gloria, who will end up uncovering the family's deepest secrets. And, of course, there is Joel, who as a boy tries to hold the family together and make the abnormal seem normal—and as a man seeks to break free from the people and places that still have him in their grip.
Drawing on his own life growing up in the Bronx, Kass tells the Joel Sachs stories with humor and unstinting honesty. His eye for detail and ear for dialogue capture the small moments between characters that will hold a universe of meaning for anyone, anywhere, whose own family was less than perfect. To read these stories is to be drawn into a world of love, betrayal, and redemption by a master storyteller.