#call it sleep

[theblackestofsuns]

Call It Sleep (1934)

Henry Roth

The Noonday Press / Farrar, Straus & Giroux

[power-chords]

“Albert,” said his wife reddening, “you are a man without a heart.”

“I?” His father drew back, his nostrils curving out in anger. “A plague on you both — I have no heart? And have you any understanding, any knowledge of how to bring up a child?” He thrust his jaw forward.

A moment of silence followed and then “I’m sorry,” she said, “I didn’t mean it. I meant only — these things happen sometimes — I’m sorry!”

“Oh, you’re sorry,” he said bitterly. “I have no heart! Woe me, to labor as I labor, for food for the two of you and for a roof over your heads. To labor and to work overtime! In vain! I have no heart! As if I gorged myself upon my earnings, as if I drank them, wallowed in the streets. Have you ever gone without anything? Tell me!”

—Henry Roth, Call It Sleep, 1934

[power-chords]

Henry Roth, Call It Sleep, 1934

[shiningwizard]

Call It Sleep (Isaac Cronin & Tom Seltzer, 1982)

[leatherpearlslace]

Call It Sleep - Steve Vai

[fakebookreport]

Call It Sleep by Henry Roth

Okay, I'll be honest with y'all, this book took me about 6 months to finish. It wasn't because I didn't like it--quite the opposite, in fact, it was incredible. Roth's diction was stellar. Chef's kiss and all that. However, at just over 440 pages, with a high-level lexicon, it's not the kind of book you can devour all at once.

The basic premise is that we're following a young boy named David over the first few years of his conscious childhood (by which I mean, from, like, ages 3-8 or so). The novel is largely told in the 3rd person omniscient with a few chapters from David's POV. The first scene has this beautiful and intimidating description of the Statue of Liberty and we meet David's parents: Albert and Genya.

When I started reading, it was apparent right away that this is a book that is more about the sensory experiences than a fast-paced plot (or a plot at all, really). Rather, we piece things together through David's limited insights into the very adult things that are going on in his child-sized world. That first scene, though... it's important about 300 pages later.

Normally, I would not be into a book that takes 3 pages just to tell you it's raining. However, the language was just so, so beautiful that I would have read a description of just about anything. The other notable thing about this novel is that while it is written completely in English, there are sections where the reader is expected to know that the characters are speaking Yiddish. The difference between the Yiddish and the English dialogues are like night and day. The English is written phonetically, which was a bit of a barrier to my understanding of some of the sections. For instance, when the word "furniture," appears in an English dialogue section, it's written as "foinichuh," and I had to say it aloud several times to be like, "Oh... furniture... right," rise and repeat. With every. single. English. word. So, that was kind of annoying. However, with the way that Roth elevated the Yiddish dialogue the contrast added a lot to the narrative.

So yeah, overall, this book was a great read. I didn't realize that Roth has written other works (Thanks, Wikipedia!) so I will definitely be checking those out.

This is an example of some of the language I found especially lyrical and lovely.

I highly, highly recommend this book!

[thebookwormunderground]

Summer had come and the advanced grade and the glowing, incalculable and unlimned vista of the school vacation--...For him the mere passing of time was a joy. The body was aware of a lyric indolence, a golden lolling within itself.

Henry Roth, Call It Sleep

[thebookwormunderground]

But now her decks were empty, quiet, spreading out under the sunlight almost as if the warm boards were relaxing from the strain and pressure of the myriads of feet.

Henry Roth, Call It Sleep