Mercy of a Rude Stream Vol. 1- A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park [Hardcover]

Henry Roth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1994

Ira Stigman, an immigrant boy, suffers a cruel Americanization process from 1914 through 1921 in a novel that deals with themes of Prohibition, anti-Semitism, racism, and the violence of sexuality. By the author of Call It Sleep. 50,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Henry Roth's literary reputation would be secure on the strength of his remarkable first novel, Call It Sleep , published in 1934 and but largely unknown until it appeared in paperback in 1964 and became an instant classic. Roth's silence in the intervening years has been broken only by a collection of his shorter pieces, Shifting Landscape . This novel, then, is a signal event, especially since its protagonist, Ira Stigman, is clearly the same young boy who served as Roth's fictional alter ego in the first book, and since it begins roughly where the earlier novel ended--in the teeming immigrant slums of New York City during the first decades of the 20th century, a time and place that Roth captures with pungent language and palpable immediacy. Roth's long struggle with this material is reflected in first-person passages interpolated into the narrative in which the now elderly Ira addresses his word processor (called Ecclesias), ruminates about the difficulties that stilled his pen, and makes references to an earlier version of this work, which he is rewriting as he goes along. He laments the crisis of identity, the "loss of affirmation" and the self-loathing that crippled his imaginative powers, events that he touches on in the third-person narrative. Again we encounter the violent, penny-pinching father, the supportive mother, the loutish relatives. Ira's memories range over family strife, his school days, the dangers of the street, the disruption of WW I, and they end--somewhat abruptly--after the book's best extended scenes, set in a fancy grocery store where the adolescent Ira works after high school. This is the most forceful part of the book, a sustained, controlled piece of writing that masterfully evokes the temper of the times--the advent of Prohibition, the casual bigotry and racism of blue-collar workers and veterans--in the process of limning a group of memorable character portraits. Since this is to be the first volume of six, the story ends ambiguously, after repeatedly hinting at but never getting to "the disastrous impairment of the psyche" and "the accident . . . the terrible deformation that was its consequence." Thus it is reasonable to think that this novel may be more satisfying when read as part of the six-volume whole. BOMC and QPB selections.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

After nearly six decades of silence, Roth, whose only previous novel, Call It Sleep (1934), has been hailed as one of the classics of 20th-century American literature, returns with proof that his earlier effort was no fluke. In this first of a projected six volumes to fall under the general rubric "Mercy of a Rude Stream," 87-year-old Roth juxtaposes two stories: A young Ira Stigman grows up in Jewish Harlem during World War I (and on to 1920, when Ira turns 14); and Roth struggles to find his voice again. The theme that ultimately unites these potentially discordant elements is deracination--Ira's internal struggle to free himself from his "Jewishness" and Roth's realization that his own attempt to do just that resulted in his "creative inanition." Because it reflects so well the struggles we all face in attempting to define who we are and where and how we fit into the bigger picture, the novel transcends both its vividly drawn, localized setting and the ethnicity of its characters. And it leaves one eagerly anticipating the next installment. Essential for academic collections and all but the smallest of public collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/93.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (January 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312104995
• ISBN-13: 978-0312104993
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,803,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this guy, November 8, 2000

By 

"littlemissess" (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mercy of a Rude Stream Vol. 1- A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park (Hardcover)

Having read Roth's classic CALL IT SLEEP on the recommendation of a very enthusiastic friend, I couldn't wait to start his MERCY OF A RUDE STREAM series. A STAR SHINES OVER MT. MORRIS PARK is an example of fine writing. Sure, there is some ambiguity in Roth's perspective shifts from the narrator as a boy and as an older man, but what's a little ambiguity in the face of wonderful language, a driving plot, a totally sympathetic and believable narrator, and some great insights about human character? Read this book. I've already got the next three on order.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprising, June 1, 2006

By 

T. Galvan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mercy of a Rude Stream Vol. 1- A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park (Hardcover)

I bought and read this novel with no idea of its acclaim. I must say that I never expected to greatly enjoy a story of a boy growing up in Jewish Harlem and certainly did not expect to relate to the main character. Roth prods us to look at ourselves and see our own attempts to break free of our stereotypes. An absolutely great read.