LEAH S JOURNEY is a sweeping novel of family rela- ,nships and cultural heritage--of the journeys m make and of the Jewish experience in twen- th-century America. It is the story of three lerations of men and women, of the depths of ~ir poverty and the heights of their prosperity, ~ir warm days in love and their dark days at wa~ ~ir conflicts and bonds with each other, and their ique personal efforts to grow and change. And it .he glowing story of one young woman: beautiful, ssionate, and unsure, Leah Goldfeder makes a ignant journey in search of herself. Leah s saga begins when she and her husband e the oppressions of the Old World to make a cou- ,~eous new life in the melting pot of Manhattan s wer East Side. The harshness of Leah s life there empered by personal rewards; and as we experi- ~e with her the roiling streets and cruel sweat- aps of New York during the grim years of pression, we come to know the friends and fam- who struggle at her side: David, her husband, ko loves Leah passionately but can t reach out to r; Eli, acharismatic and idealistic union organ- ~r who offers her the romance she can t seek ,m her husband; Aaron, Leah s son, obsessed with ving the mystery of his mother s detachment ~m him; Katie, Aaron s wife, who lives in a private [1 her husband can t penetrate; Rebecca, Leah s ughter, adored, spoiled, and directionless, until shoulders the responsibilities thrust on her by Lr; and Joshua, the amazing embodiment of the ,~s-to-riches ideal. These characters are fictional )thers and sisters of the self-made, self-educated, d self-assured men and women Irving Ho~ve de- ibed in WORLD OF OUR FATHERS; and Gloria ldreich, through her vivid sense of place and per-