The realism in this novel is astounding. In a true-to-life rags-to-riches story, young David Levinsky grows up poor, yet motivated, in the heart of a small Russian town. A Hasidic Jew with visions beyond the Torah, Talmud, and a studious life, he takes a ship to America to seek his fortune. His rise in corporate America has the power to inspire, to invoke fear, reminiscence, tears. Do not be surprised to find yourself looking within after a particularly well-written, astute paragraph by Cahan, and feeling as if he has written about your own emotions or state of mind -- decades before you were even born! Some of his metaphors, I have found, even describe the way I have thought about the world, and the feeling that you could be there alongside David in his search for wealth, power, women, and ultimately himself (Who am I?) add to the fantasitic realism with which Cahan weaves his story. It is a masterpiece, a novel that deserves to be read worldwide. I am twenty years old, but read the novel when I was 16. I have not read it since, yet recall vivid details and even entire paragraphs which struck me then even as they do now; reconciling parts of the novel to my life comes easily as I experience new things and understand and appreciate even better what the fictional David Levinsky went through. It is classic, a novel for all time. I recommend, in the strongest possible terms, to read it, love it, and enjoy it. I did... and I am a science person.
