The Old Bunch

Meyer Levin

Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc., Jul 10, 2014 - Fiction - 964 pages

The acclaimed novel of growing up in Chicago’s Jewish ghetto in the shadow of WWI: “A landmark in the development of the realistic novel” (Harold Strauss, The New York Times).

Chicago reporter and author of Compulsion, Meyer Levin won critical acclaim with this debut novel based on his own coming of age in the west side of Chicago. It follows the lives of nineteen teenagers—eleven boys and eight girls—who grow up together in the same working class Jewish Chicago neighborhood. The children of immigrants, these young people strive to forge their own paths in the aftermath of World War I and the struggles of the Great Depression.

With compassion, intimacy, and photographic detail, Levin captures not only the lives of this unique “bunch,” but also the life of a generation from the Roaring Twenties through the New Deal and the Chicago World’s Fair. First published in 1937, The Old Bunch “brilliantly succeeds in taking the reader on a memorable tour of the world in which the old bunch lived” (The New York Times).

“Written in good hard-driving colloquial prose, full of sharp characterizations . . . A very fine novel.” —New Republic

About the author

Meyer Levin (1905-1981) was called by the Los Angeles Times "the most significant American Jewish writer of his times." Norman Mailer referred to him as "one of the best American writers working in the realistic tradition." Throughout his 60 years of professional work, Levin was a constant innovator, reinventing himself and stretching his literary style with remarkable versatility. When he died, he left behind an extraordinary, diverse body of work that not only reflected the incredible life he led, but chronicled the development of Jewish history and culture in the 20th century.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Old Bunch
• Author: Meyer Levin
• Publisher: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc., 2014
• ISBN: 1625670877, 9781625670878
• Length: 964 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / City Life; Fiction / Coming of Age; Fiction / Friendship; Fiction / Literary