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5th out of 6 books
—
1 voter
Her First American
by
Lore Segal
She's Ilka Weissnix, a young Jewish refugee from Hitler's Europe, newly arrived in the United States. He's Carter Bayoux, her first American: a hard-drinking, middle-aged black intellectual. Lore Segal's novel tells the story of their unforgettable love affair.
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
November 30th 2004
by New Press, The
(first published 1985)
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I didn't actually finish this book. I just couldn't get through it. The first 20-30 pages or so were interesting enough, but once the main character meets her "first American" the story instantly becomes difficult to follow. Events keep happening with no explanation, the main character seems to have no personality/likes/dislikes of her own, the author keeps introducing new characters & new ideas but then doesn't develop them & the story keeps going off on strange tangents. For example, t...more
Lore Segal... sigh. She's so good. She's sort of like Grace Paley... they both have this amazing ability to take these beautiful situations, drawn carefully from life, and surround them with so much oxygen that you get heady thinking about them. They both make thoughts happen in your head.
So this one, my first Lore Segal grownup book, is about a new immigrant, a Jew from Vienna who has a long friendship/love affair with a vividly decaying black intellectual at least twice her age. The book cover...more
So this one, my first Lore Segal grownup book, is about a new immigrant, a Jew from Vienna who has a long friendship/love affair with a vividly decaying black intellectual at least twice her age. The book cover...more
I read "Shakespeare's Kitchen" right before this (by the same author) and while I found it eminently readable, I didn't find it memorable. But I'd heard that "Her First American" was a modern classic and so I jumped in.
It's a terrific book. There's not much in the way of plot. It's ultimately a character study - primarily of Carter Bayoux (the titular first American). He's a big, brash, brilliant, middle-aged, alcoholic, black intellectual in post WWII New York. The book focuses on his relation...more
It's a terrific book. There's not much in the way of plot. It's ultimately a character study - primarily of Carter Bayoux (the titular first American). He's a big, brash, brilliant, middle-aged, alcoholic, black intellectual in post WWII New York. The book focuses on his relation...more
Shelving this book took a moment of thought: the author was born in Vienna and educated in London, but this is at heart a very American story -- perhaps the most American of stories, in fact, for it is an immigrant's story.
The central characters, Ilka Weissnix and Carter Bayoux, are an unlikely pair of lovers: she, a young Jewish girl who fled the horrors of WWII, her parents left behind (one to die, the other to survive but driven mad); he, a sophisticated black intellectual, tormented and alc...more
The central characters, Ilka Weissnix and Carter Bayoux, are an unlikely pair of lovers: she, a young Jewish girl who fled the horrors of WWII, her parents left behind (one to die, the other to survive but driven mad); he, a sophisticated black intellectual, tormented and alc...more
The protagonist speaks weak english so it is hard to follow, but the story is interesting and worth the read if you can get over Ilka's weird english....okay so I am half way done and this book is growing on me...I love the bourbon loving Carter Bayoux...he reminds me a bit of Henry Miller, but just a bit...it is refreshing to read a novel that explores the Black Intellectuals in the 1950-60s.....I will post more once I finish...hopefully by tonight....
Aug 09, 2009
Maia
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
looking for Jewish-American experience, immigrant experience, after ww2 etc
Shelves:
before-1960
I loved the premise of this book and I really, really wanted to like it (especially because I did like her first autobiographical one) and yet, despite some very fine writing, this novel seems terribly dated and mostly just plain bored me. I attempted to read it four times before I finally made it from start to finish, and I was not happy when i did.
I feel like I didn't get this book. I know it was about race relations, and I even got the double entendre about Ilka's last name, but I still don't think I understood the various undercurrents in the book. (For example, was the Ebony character constantly feeling downtrodden, or was she sweet?) Maybe if someone had read it aloud so I could hear the tones of voice, I would have liked it better.
So so. I found the main character hard to get. Why did she put up with the guy's drinking for so long. Worth reading just for the discomfort of being the outsider when African Americans are dissing their white friends/acquaintances. Different to experience what others live with every day
a very unusual nyc love story with an unusual main character. whereas normally I devour books in gulps, Segal's writing always makes me pause and think. highly recommended if thinking is what you are in the mood for!
This wonderful novel is very engaging, but it calls on readers to be fairly active in interpreting the characters and their relationship to each other and to their social environments. The protagonist's cousin brings her copies of Henry James novels. And apparently Segal has read her share of them, but her prose is less intricate. (And frankly the idea of James bringing together a middle-age black man and a young Jewish refugee is not something I want to imagine.) My description is quite dry, an...more
I LOVED this! Thanks for recommending it, Uncle Sam! It was so weird & true & beautiful.
Good, but not the "great American novel" it was touted to be. I liked Shakespeare's Kitchen and Other People's Houses better.
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HAAR EERSTE AMERIKAAN.......
Sep 01, 2010
Mariya
marked it as to-read
NO
I really couldn't get into the book until 3/4 of the way, because I didn't feel the author had given enough background on the Carter Bayoux character for me to sympathize with him or understand why all those around him tolerated/enabled his alcoholism; he was supposed to be a charismatic man, and I couldn't see it. I found other aspects interesting: the African American "up & coming" community, and Jewish immigrant Ilka's mother's PTSD related to escaping from Nazis in Vienna.
A gripping book about race in the 50s, but so delicate and understated--the subject feels like it's explored through character somehow. It seems current now. The voice of the narrator is wonderful.
Liked the main characters and story but was disappointed by the ending.
One of my new all time favorite books.
May 15, 2013
Emma Macphail
marked it as to-read
Mar 02, 2013
Tracymarksseglin
marked it as to-read
Mar 02, 2013
Erica
marked it as to-read
Feb 20, 2013
Leigh
marked it as to-read
Feb 03, 2013
Nancy Eastham
marked it as to-read
Jan 23, 2013
Jessalyn
marked it as to-read
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Jan 10, 2010 05:38pm