¶ … Courter by Salman Rushdie

How difficult it must be to leave your homeland, come to a new country, and take up a whole new life. Mixed-up in "The Courter" has experienced a great come-down by immigrating to England. He was famous, a chess master. Now he's a janitor in an apartment building, has had a stroke, and finds it hard to speak. Two goons beat him one night and nearly kill him the next day. The new land does not seem hospitable at all. Here in the United States, where every family was once an immigrant family, there must be lots of people like Mixed-up, people who seem to be nobodies, who once were somebodies.

My grandmother's grandfather was such a person. He immigrated to the United States in the 1870s. He was an aristocrat and a companion to the King of France. Although he was really German, he considered himself French, and every year on Bastille Day, he put on his French uniform with his sword and sang the French National Anthem out in the back yard. Because he was an aristocrat, he couldn't work with his hands like a common person, so he decided to invent something to make his fortune. Meanwhile, the family became so poor that Grandmother had to sell the porcelain dishes, the silverware, and the linen napkins. But she kept out one set for him to eat from, because an aristocrat couldn't eat from ordinary dishes. One Saturday night he got an idea for an invention. The children took their baths on Saturday night in a washtub in the kitchen. By the last child, the water was so murky the soap disappeared underneath it. So Grandfather thought of floating soap, easy to find. He went to work and developed his idea. He took it to the World's Fair where he met two men, Proctor and Gamble, who were very enthusiastic about helping him manufacture it. He gave them his recipe, shook hands, and never heard from them again. When Ivory Soap came out, it was a big hit. Grandfather spoke six languages but English wasn't one of them, so he couldn't go to Court. He died of a broken heart at the age of 36, a genius, but too trusting.