Harry's head was in the toilet. Natty had run in to brush her teeth. Her mother, Rose, found her there, transfixed by what looked like coffee grounds splattered all over the bathroom tile. Rose rushed Natty and her other daughter, Abby, out of the house to school. Rose knew she had to try to save Harry's life, despite their troubled marriage.
The Blond Tiger is a true story about Eddie Roth (pseudonym), born in 1930 in Brooklyn, NY to Gussie, who didn’t want him. Life presents many obstacles to his happiness but he eventually finds it, although not as he had originally envisioned. Gussie is a refugee from Poland. Eddie’s father, Sam, who came from Russia to escape the pogroms, has adapted to American life, and runs his own construction company, while Gussie stubbornly holds onto the old ways and language. The book revolves around Eddie, Sam, Gussie, and Miriam, who suffers from asthma but tries to shield Eddie from their mother. Eddie learns to box under the name The Blond Tiger. Two wars, illness, Mafia friends, a great love, and exposure to things about which he never dreamed, impact Eddie’s life and turn his view of himself and everyone around him, upside down.
