The third volume in the late Roth's ongoing autobiographical cycle,
Mercy of a Rude Stream, is very much of a piece with its
predecessors - A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park (1994) and A
Diving Rock on the Hudson (1995). It continues the story of Roth's
alter ego, Ira Stigman, now seen wrestling with his artistic and
sexual demons as he straggles toward manhood in 1920s Manhattan and
also, some 60 years later, as the elderly Ira labors to make sense
of missed opportunities and flawed life choices, carrying on an
extended, fragmented "conversation" with his computer
("Ecclesias"). This latest novel fictionalizes Roth's longtime
affair with NYU teacher and poet Eda Lou Walton (here: Edith
Welles), and it's drenched in the kind of self-conscious literary
talk that most writers indulge in, then dispense with, in their
early work (though, to be fair, Roth does communicate effectively
the beady excitement felt by young intellectuals sharing a
contraband copy of Joyce's Ulysses, as well as the hopeful Ira's
discovery, through reading Joyce, "that it was possible to commute
the dross of the mundane and the sordid into literary treasure").
There are too many lengthy disquisitions on favored writers and
writing, and - conversely - a plodding recounting of Ira's
peregrinations from one unfulfilling day job to another. Still,
Roth writes ferocious, flinty dialogue (the scenes between Ira and
his younger sister, and former lover, Minnie are charged with an
unforgettable admixture of erotic heat and guilty hatred) and pulls
off some remarkable technical effects in balancing the young Ira's
dreams of literary accomplishment against his aged self's resigned
understanding that "performance with words was the only option open
to him, the only tramway out of himself." It's odd, and sad, to
realize that Roth, who died last October, may eventually be better
remembered for this deeply flawed final work than for his one
incontestable masterpiece: Call It Sleep (1934), the book of his
youth. (Kirkus Reviews)
'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. Written in the last year
of Roth's life, this is the impassioned story of a young man's love
affair with literature, and with his teacher. As Ira Stigman turns
from his incestuous childhood affairs, he finds himself competing
with his best friend for the attention of their literature
professor. FROM BONDAGE is the the moving culmination of a great
writer's life. '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.
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