|
|
Roth, Henry ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
|
|
|
|
1 |
Roth, Henry A Diving Rock on the Hudson: Mercy of a Rude Stream Volume 2
New York St Martins Pr Feb-95 312117779 N Hardcover
From Publishers Weekly&newline;A bombshell explodes in this second volume of the sextet, Mercy of a Rude Stream, as Roth reveals a secret that was surely one of the reasons for his 60-year writing block after the publication of Call It Sleep, his classic 1934 novel of immigrant adolescence. In the first volume of this series, his portentous hints about a dark side of Ira's sexuality may have seemed excessive; here, his alter ego, Ira Stigman, makes a shocking disclosure: a long interval of incest with his younger sister, as well as the seduction of a younger cousin. As the author/narrator continues to bare his soul to his computer, Ecclesias, readers will begin to understand the remorse, guilt and mental anguish that for a long time prevented Roth from thinking or writing about the events that form the basis for his fiction. Indeed, as he confesses that Ira's sister was not even present as a character in the first draft of this novel, written in 1979, there is a palpable sense of the writer's heart-wrenching torment. The novel succeeds in other respects as well. Simultaneously, we are inside the mind of a troubled adolescent and that of an aged but still mentally vital man, a man engaged with words, with concepts, obsessively reconsidering the role of the artist and in particular his own responsibility in portraying events truthfully. Not only his perverted sexual impulses but also his image of himself as a gauche outsider in both gentile and Jewish upper-middle class society pervades the narrative. Ira recounts his bumbling, feckless behavior during the years 1921-1925. Expelled from high school for stealing, he briefly considers diving into the Hudson rather than revealing to his impoverished parents that he has squandered the opportunity for which they have sacrificed the income that he otherwise might earn. He resumes high school elsewhere, later enters CCNY and encounters another Jewish student, Larry Gordon, who typifies the cultured world to which Ira feels he can never aspire; through Larry, he meets the professor at NYU who will become his lover in the next volume. As in his previous books, we are given a haunting picture of a vanished social class, the first generation of American children of Jewish immigrants from European shetls, living in bleak tenements, aware they are crude and uncouth by the standards of American society. This novel alone would stand as a brilliant literary achievement; one eagerly awaits the remaining work from this gifted writer. &newline;Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. &newline;&newline;From Library Journal&newline;One of last year's more significant literary events was the re-emergence, after 60 years of silence, of the author of the highly regarded Call It Sleep (1935). This second installment of Mercy of a Rude Stream (following A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park, LJ 12/94) continues the saga of Ira Stigman, teenage son of Orthodox Jewish immigrant parents, as he struggles to find his way in the larger world. Narrated by the now elderly Ira, it effectively evokes both life in 1920s New York and the angst of adolescent existence. In Ira's case, this angst results not only from the growing distance that separates his and his parents' views of the world but from uncontrollable urges that drive him to violate one of society's strongest taboos. Close beneath the surface of Ira's story, however (and sometimes on top), lies Roth's own story-the reason for his long silence, his need to break &doublequote;the shackles on the spirit of the artisan himself,&doublequote; his confirmation that in his previous work he had not been totally honest, that &doublequote;he was not an innocent,&doublequote; and that by not admitting this he had lost his way. Like the earlier volume, this one belongs in most academic and public libraries.&newline;--David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.&newline;Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Price:
4.00 USD
|
|
Add to Shopping Cart |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
Roth, Henry Mercy of a Rude Stream Volume 1- A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris
New York St Martins Pr Jan-94 312104995 N Hardcover
From Publishers Weekly&newline;Henry Roth's literary reputation would be secure on the strength of his remarkable first novel, Call It Sleep , published in 1934 and but largely unknown until it appeared in paperback in 1964 and became an instant classic. Roth's silence in the intervening years has been broken only by a collection of his shorter pieces, Shifting Landscape . This novel, then, is a signal event, especially since its protagonist, Ira Stigman, is clearly the same young boy who served as Roth's fictional alter ego in the first book, and since it begins roughly where the earlier novel ended--in the teeming immigrant slums of New York City during the first decades of the 20th century, a time and place that Roth captures with pungent language and palpable immediacy. Roth's long struggle with this material is reflected in first-person passages interpolated into the narrative in which the now elderly Ira addresses his word processor (called Ecclesias), ruminates about the difficulties that stilled his pen, and makes references to an earlier version of this work, which he is rewriting as he goes along. He laments the crisis of identity, the &doublequote;loss of affirmation&doublequote; and the self-loathing that crippled his imaginative powers, events that he touches on in the third-person narrative. Again we encounter the violent, penny-pinching father, the supportive mother, the loutish relatives. Ira's memories range over family strife, his school days, the dangers of the street, the disruption of WW I, and they end--somewhat abruptly--after the book's best extended scenes, set in a fancy grocery store where the adolescent Ira works after high school. This is the most forceful part of the book, a sustained, controlled piece of writing that masterfully evokes the temper of the times--the advent of Prohibition, the casual bigotry and racism of blue-collar workers and veterans--in the process of limning a group of memorable character portraits. Since this is to be the first volume of six, the story ends ambiguously, after repeatedly hinting at but never getting to &doublequote;the disastrous impairment of the psyche&doublequote; and &doublequote;the accident . . . the terrible deformation that was its consequence.&doublequote; Thus it is reasonable to think that this novel may be more satisfying when read as part of the six-volume whole. BOMC and QPB selections. &newline;Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. &newline;&newline;From Library Journal&newline;After nearly six decades of silence, Roth, whose only previous novel, Call It Sleep (1934), has been hailed as one of the classics of 20th-century American literature, returns with proof that his earlier effort was no fluke. In this first of a projected six volumes to fall under the general rubric &doublequote;Mercy of a Rude Stream,&doublequote; 87-year-old Roth juxtaposes two stories: A young Ira Stigman grows up in Jewish Harlem during World War I (and on to 1920, when Ira turns 14); and Roth struggles to find his voice again. The theme that ultimately unites these potentially discordant elements is deracination--Ira's internal struggle to free himself from his &doublequote;Jewishness&doublequote; and Roth's realization that his own attempt to do just that resulted in his &doublequote;creative inanition.&doublequote; Because it reflects so well the struggles we all face in attempting to define who we are and where and how we fit into the bigger picture, the novel transcends both its vividly drawn, localized setting and the ethnicity of its characters. And it leaves one eagerly anticipating the next installment. Essential for academic collections and all but the smallest of public collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/93.&newline;- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.&newline;Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Price:
4.00 USD
|
|
Add to Shopping Cart |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Roth, Henry on Adinfinitumbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Ahabbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Atticbooksandtreasures.com
Roth, Henry on Booksinrockford.com
Roth, Henry on Booksontheblvd.com
Roth, Henry on Booksr4u.net
Roth, Henry on Brainiacbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Brassdolphinbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Bubbasbookswap.com
Roth, Henry on Caterwaulbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Chapter1.co.za
Roth, Henry on Ciaokatzbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Cranberrybooks.com
Roth, Henry on Crazyhorsebooks.com
Roth, Henry on Dogearedpagesusedbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Downtownbooksellers.com
| Roth, Henry on Fatcitybookstore.com
Roth, Henry on Fiction-addiction.com
Roth, Henry on Frugalfamilybooks.com
Roth, Henry on Garrisonhousebooks.com
Roth, Henry on Gibbsbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Gibsonbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Hammondsbooks.net
Roth, Henry on Lairdbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Lapointesbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Lincbook.com
Roth, Henry on Mimicobooks.com
Roth, Henry on Monkeyread.com
Roth, Henry on Mybookstorename.com
Roth, Henry on Onceuponatimebooks.com
Roth, Henry on Pagemaster-books.com
Roth, Henry on Pomfretstreetbooks.com
| Roth, Henry on Rebook.us
Roth, Henry on Riverrunbooksandprints.com
Roth, Henry on Showlettwestbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Simpsonbooks.com
Roth, Henry on Springystreasures.com
Roth, Henry on Stillwaterbooks.co.uk
Roth, Henry on Thebookwormoforlando.com
Roth, Henry on Theshelfbookshop.com
Roth, Henry on Tulsabooksinc.com
Roth, Henry on Used-and-rare-books.com
Roth, Henry on Waywardbooksonline.com
Roth, Henry on Wiseowlbooks.net
Roth, Henry on Zephyrusbooks.com
|
|
|
Home