The central characters' parents some immigrant and impoverished, others here for a generation and flourishing work as buttonmakers, have small factories, run flop houses, are fur-workers, real-estate operators, cigarmakers, grocery- and furniture-store proprietors, and, in one notable instance, the political boss of the Jewish West Side.

WSJ: The Old Bunch | Meyer Levin | Destiny's Children | Masterpiece by Joseph Epstein