“Call It Sleep is the most profound novel of Jewish life that I have ever read by an American. It is a work of high art, written out of the full resources of modernism. It subtly interweaves gutter, cellar, sexual and religious taboos with the overwhelming love between a mother and son. It brings together the darkness and light of Jewish immigrant life before the First World War as experienced by a very young boy, really a child, who depends on his imagination alone to fend off a world so hostile that it begins with his own father.” - Alfred Kazin
1906 - Born in Tysmenitz, Galacia, Austrian-Hungary
1908 The family immigrates to New York City
1934 Call it Sleep is published
1985 Dies in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Set in New York’s lower east side, the first stop for many Yiddish speaking immigrants Call it Sleep is an amazing, complex work of art. The novel intermingles bits of Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish along with English to show us how it felt to be an eight year old boy in this environment. The story takes place maybe 1908 or so. The streets are half motor vehicles and half horse carts.
David lives with his father and mother. The father has a violent temper which costs him a series of factory jobs. Finally he gets a job that suits him, a milk man. The relationship between the David and his mother is very close, he is afraid of his father. I don’t wish to say a lot about Call it Sleep but will just say a few of the things I liked about it.
The wive’s younger sister Bertha arrives from Austria. She is as bold and foul mouthed, in great contrast to the timid mother. Her and Albert, the boy’s father, have some monumental verbal battles. It was a lot of fun to see this and I also greatly enjoyed the lead up to Bertha’s eventual marriage to a Russian Jew, a widower with two daughters. The dinner where Bertha brings Nathan home to meet her family is a classic. The constant exchange of insults between Albert and Bertha was a lot of fun. Just before Nathan arrives Bertha tells Albert not to scare off Nathan by acting like a barbarian, Nathan’s response is he will do nothing to prevent her leaving. He tells Bertha he cannot wait to meet a man so desperate as to marry her.
After a few months David goes to visit Aunt Bertha’s Candy shop. The screaming match between Bertha and her two step daughters was perfect, down to the “You are not my mother”. Bertha is kind of a stock character, the abusive loud mouthed woman married to a very mild husband.
The mother has a terrible secret, one that eventually causes a horrible fight.
Roth captures the feel of the tenements, the mixture of languages, cultures, religions and nationalities. Above all for the Family it is a struggle to adjust. We see David very slowly growing up, learning English and going to Hebrew school. In one harrowing scene he gets lost and ends up at the Police Station. Of course the Police man who helps him is Irish.
I laughed out loud several times, I enjoyed How Roth made use of a Yiddishized English. All The characters were very real.
This is truly a great novel
1 comment:
And now you can go on to read the four volumes of "Mercy of a Rude Stream", the first of which was published in 1994, i.e. after 60 years of silence. They are marvellous.
Helen
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