Ira Gershwin and a love of Gilbert and Sullivan. He attended the City College of New York but dropped out. The childhood home of Ira and George Gershwin was in the center of the Yiddish Theater District, on the second floor at 91 Second Avenue, between East 5th Street and East 6th Street. They frequented the local Yiddish theaters. While George began composing and "plugging" in Tin Pan Alley from the age of 18, Ira worked as a cashier in his father's Turkish baths. It was not until 1921 that Ira became involved in the music business. Alex Aarons signed Ira to
What They Always Tell Us the novel opens a few months after he drank Pine-Sol in an apparent suicide attempt. James is a senior who is presented as the exact opposite of Alex. James is ambitious, popular and athletic. The story takes place over the school year and chronicles the brothers fulfilling school and family obligations, befriending a lost and isolated neighborhood boy, and the brothers repairing their own relationship with one another. The chapters switch back and forth between Alex and James' perspective, giving reader access to both of their thoughts and desires. "What They Always Tell Us" was generally well received by critics.