Redemption: The Life of Henry Roth [Hardcover]

Steven G. Kellman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2005

A penetrating biography of an unheralded master of American fiction.

Henry Roth (1906-1995), author of the great immigrant novel Call It Sleep, is one of the giants of American literature, yet for years he has lacked a biography. After completing his first book in 1934, Roth lapsed into a legendary six-decade silence, only to reemerge with Mercy of a Rude Stream, hailed as "a landmark of the American literary century" (David Mehegan, Boston Globe) and "as provocative as anything in the chapters of St. Augustine" (Stefan Kanfer, Los Angeles Times Book Review). In following Roth's tortured life from his childhood on the Jewish Lower East Side to his twilight years in New Mexico, literary critic Steven Kellman has uncovered FBI files, spoken with family members and friends, and gained access to the tape in which Roth discussed the long-buried incest of his youth. Redemption is the Shakespearean saga of a great writer doomed to a life of psychological torment, but saved in the end by his search for deliverance. 16 pages of illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The obvious hurdle in writing a biography of Roth (1906–1995) is the 60-year gap between his first novel, the Jewish immigrant, stream-of-consciousness classic Call It Sleep (1934), and his second, the four-volume Mercy of a Rude Stream (1994–1998). Kellman, an English professor and author of seven previous scholarly works, makes a strong case against writer's block as the reason for the long silence, pointing out that Roth pitched short stories to the New Yorker for years (with intermittent success). Instead, he suggests, Roth deliberately withdrew from writing rather than allow his autobiographical fiction to confront his worst adolescent shames: expulsion from high school for stealing and a prolonged incestuous relationship with his sister. Kellman's account of Roth's early life draws extensively on the Mercy of a Rude Stream, created from thousands of manuscript pages Roth produced in his final years, and carefully details how they were prepared for publication, blaming editorial missteps for the slightly disappointed reaction of critics surprised by the author's new, more naturalistic voice. After the excitement of Roth's life before Call It Sleep—his Lower East Side childhood, the incest, involvement with an older woman—however, the long, often painfully frustrating decades that follow may make readers wish he'd hurry up and start writing again. Despite occasionally overplaying the drama, Kellman gives readers a thoughtful and objective perspective on Roth's life. (Aug. 15)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Irving Howe’s 1964 description of Roth’s Call It Sleep as "one of the few genuinely distinguished novels written by a 20th-century American" catapulted Roth to fame. Yet the author’s decades-long silence became legendary. In the first book-length biography of Roth, Kellman sensitively probes this mystery. He posits Roth as his abusive father’s psychological victim—and as a result, paranoid, self-loathing, and vengeful—which seemed to sit well with critics. Although reviewers praised the way Kellman never failed to connect Roth’s life to America’s larger cultural milieu, many sensed a lingering secrecy to the writer’s life. Most agreed, however, that this birth-to-life chronicle is "a trenchant exploration of the relationship between the horrors of life and the saving power of art" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (August 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393057798
• ISBN-13: 978-0393057799
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,388,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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