Bittersweet Berries: Growing Up Jewish in Minnesota

Ruth F. Brin’s compelling memoir reveals the childhood beginnings of her life as feminist thinker, poet, and well-respected writer of the Jewish faith. Brin draws close and loving portraits of her parents and older brothers, and outlines the history of her paternal grandparents who came to America from Austria-Hungary in the late 1880s to settle in Saint Paul. Early on, Brin relates her growing sense of how her religious faith will be integrated into her life and the ways in which she and her family must confront and survive instances of anti-Semitism. The author’s original poems combine with her family’s traditional stories to make Bittersweet Berries a unique narrative of one woman’s beginnings and growth as an accomplished writer and religious thinker.