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In 1994 Henry Roth broke his sixty-year literary silence following his classic novel CALL IT SLEEP, with the publication of volume one of MERCY OF A RUDE STREAM, called A STAR SHINES OVER MT. MORRIS PARK. This four-volume series was hailed as 'unsurpassable' in the annals of twentieth-century American literature. Henry Roth died aged 89 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in October 1995.
Even those who haven't read the late Roth's previous two books in this series (Mercy of a Rude Stream and A Diving Rock on the Hudson) will be profoundly affected by this third installment in the life of Roth's alter ego, Ira Stigman. A rich, provocative portrait of a mind in turmoil and a soul in torment, it is recalled, like the earlier books, both through the eyes of the young Stigman and through the musings of his now elderly self to his computer, called Ecclesias. The slum-raised Ira continues his friendship with Larry Gordon, who has introduced him to the refinements of an upper-middle-class Jewish milieu. Larry's lover, poet and CCNY professor Edith Welles (aka Eda Lou Walton), initiates Ira into the even more rarefied world of New York intellectuals and literati in the 1920s (Margaret Mead, Louise Bogan, Leonie Adams). The 20-year-old Ira is wracked by guilt about his incestuous relationships with his sister and his cousin; his turbulent feelings of social and intellectual inferiority; his sexual yearning for Edith, compounded by fears of betraying Larry. These memories of his youth are intermingled with the ruminations of the octogenarian Ira/Roth, concerning the dire events that would later occur: his decades-long writer's block after the publication of Call It Sleep when he was 28; his frequent depressions and inability to rise above blue-collar jobs, which meant that his wife, M, a promising composer when they met at Yaddo, was forced, as family wage earner, to abandon her creative career; his alienation from Judaism, which was not to end until the late 1960s. In these revelations, and in the candid scenes of life among barely Americanized, Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants and their rebellious offspring, Roth expresses his anguish with wrenching candor and self-loathing; he is consumed with bitterness about two wasted lives-his and M's. Yet in recounting Ira's release from "the bondage he had imposed on himself more than 70 years ago," Roth has wasted nothing. The continuing epic, to be revealed in further books, will surely constitute one of the most remarkable literary creations of this century. First serial to the New York Times Magazine.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Seller: Goldstone Books, Llandybie, United Kingdom
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 'A landmark of the American literary century' Boston Globe Sixty years after the publication of his great modernist masterpiece, Call It Sleep, Henry Roth returned with Mercy of a Rude Stream - a sequence of four internationally-acclaimed epic novels of immigrant life in early-twentieth century New York. The second novel in the internationally acclaimed six-volume sequence which began with MERCY OF A RUDE STREAM. Ira Stigman, now an adolescent in 1920s New York, is on the rack. All his friends seem to be paragons of achievement and sophistication, while his own life bears the taint of an impoverished immigrant background. Work on the trolleycars and selling soda at Yankee Stadium introduces him to an underworld of corruption and petty thieving, and all his choices seem to be the wrong ones. Worst of all, within his own family exists a temptation so dark that it has corroded Ira's very soul. A DIVING ROCK ON THE HUDSON is fearless in its depiction of a young man in the lower depths, yet in its glimpses of redemption it offers hope with the power of literature as a force for comprehension and forgiveness. 'The literary comeback of the century' Vanity Fair 'As unquenchably vibrant with life as the immigrants whose existence it commemorates' Sunday Times 'A dynamic and moving event . . . a stirring portrait of a vanished culture . . . a poignant chapter in the life-drama of a unique American writer' Newsweek 'Although it is sixty years since a new novel by Mr Roth last hit the bookshelves, it has been worth the wait' The Economist 'Fresh and touching' Wall Street Journal 'A precision of detail which brings the sounds from the tenements, the heat of the sidewalk steaming off the pages' Sunday Express 'A meticulous evocation of a now-distant episode of the American experience' New York Times Book Review Mercy of a Rude Stream: The Complete Novels includes 1) A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park 2) A Diving Rock on the Hudson 3) From Bondage 4) Requiem for Harlem. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR003389302
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The second novel in the internationally acclaimed six-volume sequence which began with MERCY OF A RUDE STREAM Ira Stigman,now an adolescent in 1920's New York,is on the rack.All his friends seem to be paragons of achievement and sophistication,while his own life bears the taint of an impoverished immigrant background.Work on the trolleycars and selling soda at Yankee Stadium introduces him to an underworld of corruption and petty thieving,and all his choices seem to be the wrong ones.Worst of all,within his own family exists a temptation so dark that it has corroded Ira's very soul.A DIVING ROCK ON THE HUDSONis fearless in its depiction of a young man in the lower depths,yet in its glimpses of redemption it offers hope with the power of lterature as a force for comprehension and forgiveness. 'The Ur-novel at the heart of American literature - Mercy of a Rude Stream is a towering achievement' Junot Diaz 'Henry Roth has only two peers in American-English Jewish fiction, Nathanael West and Philip Roth' Harold BloomThe second novel in the internationally acclaimed six-volume sequence which began with MERCY OF A RUDE STREAM Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781857993561
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