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The Children at the Gate
The compelling events of this dark and powerful novel take place in the restless, humming world of a hospital in a New England city. Nineteen-year-old Angelo DeMarco, who makes twice-daily rounds among the patients to take orders for the pharmacy where he works, shelters himself from life behind a barricade of toughness and arrogance. Sammy, the new orderly who suddenly emerges one night from the shadows of the children's ward, is a human being unlike anybody Angelo has previously known. The encounter between the contemptuous skeptic from a devout Catholic family and the Jew who seems at first no more than a wild, eccentric clown has profound consequences for them both after the shocking drama of a few summer weeks.
- GenresFictionLiterature
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
3 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Edward Lewis Wallant
6 books45 followersWallant began to write professionally at age twenty nine. He had served in the Second World War as a gunner's mate. He attended the University of Connecticut and graduated from Pratt Institute and studied writing at The New School in New York. While he worked as an advertising art director, Wallant wrote at night.
Wallant died of an aneurysm at the age of 36.
Wallant died of an aneurysm at the age of 36.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 10, 2010
Another I read for my "Images of Christ in the novel". I really enjoyed this one!
August 22, 2015
I'm not going to go into too much detail. This is the third novel of Edward Lewis Wallant's I have finished. I think he is one of my favorite writers. His novels, though short, are powerful and moving stories, told in an omniscient voice with great insight and feeling for being human. More people should read his work, which consists of; Human Season, The Pawnbroker, The Tenants of Moonbloom, and The Children at the Gate. It's unfortunate that he died at the age of 36. The greed inside me wants more of his words, but just as we have to accept with musicians or any other artist who dies young, the art that was offered before their demise is all we have. However, in most cases the artists never had the chance to grow tired of their crafts and water down their art into an uninspired habit.
November 13, 2014
A powerful and entertaining read. I've re-read it several times.
January 3, 2019
It took me a while to get to reviewing this one because I didn't know quite what to make of it. It's a gripping short novel with complex characters and a completely ambiguous ending. The writer is really going for the whole “imitation of Christ” thing, and did a hell of a good job of balancing the character in question with a whole bunch of stuff that makes him repulsive. Sammy is charismatic and endlessly compassionate, but also creepily intense, a bullshit artist, and more than just a little cracked in the head. You want to be in his company, but you also want to tell his weird ass to fuck off about half the time because he's getting into your head and doing weird shit in there with what he's talking about. Is it rantings, or is it a parable? Will it make your demons depart or drive you to embrace them?
There's a few problems with the story that emerge on later reflection. The author Wallant was Jewish and made most of his main characters Jewish. Perhaps to balance out the fact that Sammy is Jewish, he made Angelo Italian. The problem is that the author seems to get the externals about lower middle class Italian-American culture, he doesn't seem to get the finer details. Yes, the family is loud, very Catholic and given to emotional outbursts and physical roughness. At the same time, they're just too open about things no Italian Catholic would be open about, even behind closed doors. Angelo's militant atheism, disrespect towards priests and all around mouthiness would have had gotten him regular beatings from his uncle and every other male in his family and then a swift kick out the door once he turned 18. He would have learned to bite his tongue years ago, or taken off on his own as a runaway. It just wouldn't have been tolerated even in a family as dysfunctional as his. At the same token, they're also waaaay to open about sex. No Italian mother, even an unhappy widow like Angelo's mother would ever ever talk with son about how lonely she is for the physical company of a man. Hell, that's just not a Catholic thing at all.
On a lesser note, the novel shows its age with some thematic aspects of Freudianism, and a dialogue style and tone that places it squarely in the late 50s to early 60s when it was written. I kind of wonder, did they really talk like that in the East Coast ethnic neighborhoods, or is it all something played up for books and movies. It almost comes across as a quaint affectation to me at this point, even when it was done contemporaneously.
Let me say though, even if it's dated and a little bit off key, Wallant was a pretty good writer in saying quite a bit in a short amount of space while not seeming minimalist at all. He died of an aneurysm very young, long before most serious novelists hit their stride. He was definitely trying to hit at a universal theme in his works, but death cut short his development. Likely had he lived past Thirty-Five he would have as high a literary profile as J.D. Salinger or Philip Roth.
Three and a half stars out of five
There's a few problems with the story that emerge on later reflection. The author Wallant was Jewish and made most of his main characters Jewish. Perhaps to balance out the fact that Sammy is Jewish, he made Angelo Italian. The problem is that the author seems to get the externals about lower middle class Italian-American culture, he doesn't seem to get the finer details. Yes, the family is loud, very Catholic and given to emotional outbursts and physical roughness. At the same time, they're just too open about things no Italian Catholic would be open about, even behind closed doors. Angelo's militant atheism, disrespect towards priests and all around mouthiness would have had gotten him regular beatings from his uncle and every other male in his family and then a swift kick out the door once he turned 18. He would have learned to bite his tongue years ago, or taken off on his own as a runaway. It just wouldn't have been tolerated even in a family as dysfunctional as his. At the same token, they're also waaaay to open about sex. No Italian mother, even an unhappy widow like Angelo's mother would ever ever talk with son about how lonely she is for the physical company of a man. Hell, that's just not a Catholic thing at all.
On a lesser note, the novel shows its age with some thematic aspects of Freudianism, and a dialogue style and tone that places it squarely in the late 50s to early 60s when it was written. I kind of wonder, did they really talk like that in the East Coast ethnic neighborhoods, or is it all something played up for books and movies. It almost comes across as a quaint affectation to me at this point, even when it was done contemporaneously.
Let me say though, even if it's dated and a little bit off key, Wallant was a pretty good writer in saying quite a bit in a short amount of space while not seeming minimalist at all. He died of an aneurysm very young, long before most serious novelists hit their stride. He was definitely trying to hit at a universal theme in his works, but death cut short his development. Likely had he lived past Thirty-Five he would have as high a literary profile as J.D. Salinger or Philip Roth.
Three and a half stars out of five
November 7, 2025
Certainly another interesting read for my literature “Images of Christ in the Novel” - I liked how the main protagonist, Sammy, displayed Christ through humor to the very bogged-down, skeptic main character. It was a little chaotic and some of it was definitely lost on me, so overall I would rate it interesting out of 5 - not bad, not excellent, but thought-provoking and fun to roll the story around in my mind. Good read if you want a fresh take on Christianity from the perspective of a totally skeptical, science based religious person.
April 2, 2021
There's a lot to think about in this book. I didn't love it, but that was more because of the decade of the writing style, which isn't my favorite.
January 31, 2022
I really enjoyed the gritty and grungey style of this book. I still don't understand it fully. The dialogue really swept me away though, and it there's a lot to think about here.
February 27, 2022
A new author to me though I know of the movie, Pawnbroker, (from a book by Wallant). Found on our shelves. Odd story but brilliantly and touchingly told.
February 29, 2024
This book gave me nothing but depression
August 12, 2025
One of the books that show how God often uses the pain and shock of life to arise in us trust in Him. Sammie is one of those characters that you linger on long after you read this book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews