Howard Fast's "The Immigrants" concerns French, Italian, Irish and Chinese immigrants in turn-of-the-century San Francisco…. Fast never parades his research, but each scene stands on firm detail. One of his best novels (he's produced about 60 books), it spans 40 years. It's also the opener of a [series] that is likely to be Fast's big bid for recognition as an artist. He does a lot of things right in this novel…. I always fear that a Fast novel is proving a thesis, even though his deep story-hooks keep me reading. And "The Immigrants," I'm sure, has some overriding social purpose, but happily it never gets in front of the relentless pace of events. In short, you can enjoy this book without a thought in your head….

I began to sense real experiences leaping full-bodied from Fast's imagination as rapidly as they could be thought up, as if his brain had...