The Dream (2008)

Harry Bernstein's first memoir, The Invisible Wall, chronicled his childhood on a quietly hostile North London street divided between Christians and Jews. In this follow-up, The Dream, which can easily stand alone, the Bernsteins arrive in America and face the roller coaster of the 1920s and one disappointment after another. The awe that pervaded Wall still shines through (''A telephone, no less!'' he exclaims about American amenities), but Bernstein, now 97, seems more self-aware. He takes us up to the present and, as is clear since he's now a published author, through his attainment of the American dream. B