book data
442 ratings, 3.87 average rating, 69 reviews
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published
January 1st 1992
(first published 1934)
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
binding
Paperback, 448 pages
isbn
0374522928
(isbn13: 9780374522926)
description
When Henry Roth published Call It Sleep, his first novel, in 1934, it was greeted with critical acclaim. But in that dark Depression year, book...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 715)
Read in August, 2006
recommends it for:
everyone
All the beauty of Joyce with none of his pretension, accessible and poetic, spiritual and religious. By far my most intense reading experience.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
anybody
An elegant, pre-adolescent Bildungsroman of sorts, a sort of urban-poetic mural of artistic perception and familial love. While reading Call It Sleep, I had the feeling of being in the presence of the most unassuming literary genius I'd never heard much about. Though the linguistic characteristics are fairly interesting, it's the wholly authentic rendering of David's inner struggles and the portrayal of mother-son love that make the book great.
Thanks, Will!
Thanks, Will!
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Read in October, 2007
With remarkable control over language and an intuitive instinct for rhythm and sound, Roth presents life through the eyes of a young Jewish immigrant. When David, the boy, is with his mother in the sanctuary of their home, the language is melodic and harmonious. When outside, interacting with others, the language becomes more chaotic, stressful, and ultimately jarring. Using voice, Roth presents all sides of a character. You know, and understand them through the eyes of David, but when another c...more
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Read in June, 2007
A very simple story about an immigrant boy growing up in
New York's Jewish ghettoes in the early 20th century. The
book captures the fear of being an outcast child better
than anything else I've ever read; indeed, it gets inside
of one character's head better than most any writer.
Spectacular characterization; worth owning for that reason
alone.
New York's Jewish ghettoes in the early 20th century. The
book captures the fear of being an outcast child better
than anything else I've ever read; indeed, it gets inside
of one character's head better than most any writer.
Spectacular characterization; worth owning for that reason
alone.
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People like this book for all kinds of reasons. Most important to me has always been that Roth is really good at rendering what it's like to be a scared kid, especially how painful it is to become aware of things one was happier not knowing.
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Read in January, 2000
This is not a book I would have chosen of my own free will to read. It was required reading for an American Jewish literature class I took in college. It is fabulous. What an incredible account of the immigrant experience.
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This book has become my stock answer to the question "What is your favorite book?" It's very beautiful; the prose is dense, dark, internal, and terribly modernist. And extremely affecting.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in August, 2008
This story of a Jewish Austrian immigrant family in New York City has some notable weaknesses: the dialect, for example, can be distracting and hard to follow, and the young protagonist's stream-of-consciousness episodes are often repetitive and uninformative (as so many internal narratives are in real life!). It took me several tries over the years to get into this long novel, but having gotten on a bit of a Jewish immigrant literature kick this summer (...for some reason), I picked it up again...more
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Read in July, 2008
I thought this was an excellent book.
It was sent to me by a man I met on-line in a group that discusses American dialect. This author did a wonderful job of writing dialogue phonetically, so the reader could 'hear' the accents of the various characters.
The main characters spoke Yiddish at home (which was translated into perfect, even poetic,English) and heavily accented English on the streets. The kids on the street's language was especially fun for me to read.
"Hey, you're Dav...more
It was sent to me by a man I met on-line in a group that discusses American dialect. This author did a wonderful job of writing dialogue phonetically, so the reader could 'hear' the accents of the various characters.
The main characters spoke Yiddish at home (which was translated into perfect, even poetic,English) and heavily accented English on the streets. The kids on the street's language was especially fun for me to read.
"Hey, you're Dav...more
Read in March, 2008
Just finished this book. I've recently taken an interest in exploring other cultures. This has drawn me into cities in my reading and in my everyday life. A thirst for diversity maybe. I've read a few books now about first century Jewish kids growing up in the states. This one begins similarly to My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok which i absolutely loved. There is some really rich symbolism in that book that brings a powerful story line to life. Both books are about Jewish families of t...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
People interested in NYC, immigration, Jewish life or all three
I liked this novel, and I didn't like this novel. What I did like was the intensity of it, and the vivid descriptions of immigrant life in early 20th century New York City. I also liked the way the author wrote the dialect of the young boys on the streets.
What I did not like was the stream-of-consciousness writing done in certain sections. It just confused me and made me wish the author would get to the point and end the scene. I want the story to move forward and not get stuck in the ...more
What I did not like was the stream-of-consciousness writing done in certain sections. It just confused me and made me wish the author would get to the point and end the scene. I want the story to move forward and not get stuck in the ...more
Henry Roth was a truly talented writer and I feel frustrated as a reader that there are only a few books of his to read. However, "Call it Sleep," is a wonderfully full and vibrant novel about a poor Eastern European Jewish family that settles in the Lower East Side slums of New York. David is the protagonist, a small, fearful, and imaginative boy who must contend with the fast moving intensity and danger as a foreigner in New York. He is surrounded by moving characters, such as his br...more
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Joyce's name crops up in reviews of this book, but the similarities are superficial. Stream of consciousness, that's about it. Henry Roth is a very remarkable writer but reading him gave me the same feelings the coffee shop guy has towards Phoebe's singing in Friends -
"Don't you like Phoebe's singing?"
"I'm not saying she's bad, but she makes me want to stick my fingers through my eyes into my brain and swirl them round and round." The stuff of the kid's life in Call it Sl...more
"Don't you like Phoebe's singing?"
"I'm not saying she's bad, but she makes me want to stick my fingers through my eyes into my brain and swirl them round and round." The stuff of the kid's life in Call it Sl...more
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Read in August, 2008
This is a tour de force and at the same time a very difficult book to read. It is difficult in part because the story and the lives of the characters are bleak and impoverished not only financially but emotionally as well. It is also difficult to read because much of it is written in dialects, almost phonetically. Yiddish, German, English New Jersey style, etc. Call It Sleep is a wrenching story of immigrant Jews in New York, Jews that came from rural shtetls, with little or no education. T...more
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Read in September, 2008
A book by a man who knew his craft. Carefully woven together, always surefooted, proceeding in pieces that are each a burnished thing.
The final night sequence is obviously very Joycean but, more than that, it works stand-alone and as the culmination of the novel. Suddenly many voices appear, fully formed and apart from David's LES Jewish experience, and they converge like streets running together. And there's David having a metaphysical experience but also something of a rational (from a chi...more
The final night sequence is obviously very Joycean but, more than that, it works stand-alone and as the culmination of the novel. Suddenly many voices appear, fully formed and apart from David's LES Jewish experience, and they converge like streets running together. And there's David having a metaphysical experience but also something of a rational (from a chi...more
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Read in June, 2008
I can see why many readers find themselves frustrated with this book. It is written using, at times, a Joycean stream of consciousness style that gets quite repetitive and may annoy some readers, but I found it to be a useful tool for communicating the young protagonist's mental condition. Another quality of the book that bothers readers is the incredibly negative plot line. I often found myself asking, "Is anything good ever going to happen to this kid? Is he ever going to meet a person, o...more
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Read in January, 2008
Oh dear, another classic book that I have to admit I didn't enjoy all that much. I love New York novels of this period, but this one was a bit torturous. The only thing that kept me going was the thought that things just HAD to get better for this kid. I mean, something at least remotely pleasant had to happen at some point, right? He couldn't go on being completely traumatized every time he walked outside, right? Uh, not quite. I did read the enlightening introduction and afterword, which gave ...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone who is looking for the dark truths of the world.
It occurs to me that a reader who loves to hear different ways people speak English might love this book for the simple reason that you can "hear" the characters speaking and know how they sound. It was worth the time it took to go slowly and savor what I heard in my reader's ear.
There have been and will continue to be people who live only to suffer and then to die. Their stories are well worth telling. It's not necessary to add little fun moments to their stories. This is not a &...more
There have been and will continue to be people who live only to suffer and then to die. Their stories are well worth telling. It's not necessary to add little fun moments to their stories. This is not a &...more
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Read in December, 2007
I decided to read this book when I found it on several lists of modern classics, and I'd never heard of it before. Call It Sleep seemed to me to have three different styles of narration: first, the direct description of the boy David's experience in his home, written in plain, excellent prose that captures the depths of his love for his mother and his fear of his father. Second is the immigrant child's life on the streets, written in phonetically rendered dialect that made me want to ba...more
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The story of David, a seven year-old Jewish boy in Brownsville and the Lower East Side. His abusive father causes him to live in constant fear. He seeks for anything that will give him security. He gets a rosary from a Catholic friend as a talisman. In the end he intentionally shocks himself on the rail of the streetcar while seeking to come in contact with the light of God, and hence safety. A remarkably well-written book. Lyrical. Excellent character development, psychology. Set about 1913, wr...more
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