Reading 1001 discussion

An account of a young Eastern European Jewish boy's (David) upbringing in New York's Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century. It follows attempts to both integrate into the community, and preserve his heritage through being taught by a local rabbi. David's family is also full of secrets and resentment.

His adventures in the city (there is one memorable episode where he gets lost and can't find his way home because no one understands his accent), his family issues, and cultural clashes all converge to cause a huge rift in his family.

I thought this was a good book about the immigrant and Jewish American experience, but it wasn't my favorite. I gave it 3 stars.

Rating: 3 stars


The story of David, an immigrant boy of Jewish descent raised in a New York ghetto in the early woth century. David and his family are from Galicia, which is now part of Ukraine. Identity is a big theme in this book, especially in terms of religion and language. A frequent topic related to the strained relationship between David and his father.

This book had a lot of great elements, but was just okay in terms of enjoyment.

David Schearl is a young Jewish boy growing up in New York in the tenements of New York in the early years of the 20th century. He’s desperately close to his mother and afraid of his father’s violent moods. His parents arrived as immigrants, they speak Yiddish at home (which is rendered in standard English in the book) and at first, when he’s not yet old enough to go to school, he struggles with English - which is written phonetically (“I god sumtin tuh show yuh”), so I struggled with it sometimes too. That worked well for getting the feeling of the family being in a foreign land.

David’s emotions are up and down all the time – he’s generally a fearful child, but there are moments of joy – and he lives in the moment, worrying about tomorrow but never thinking of next year and rarely remembering the past. I was completely caught up in his young life and loved this book.

One reader said he'd rather live through his motorcycle accident again than re-read this book. I didn't hate it that much, but I hated it. There are hours upon hours of stream-of-conscious narration from the POV of the child protagonist that is just -- I don't know how to describe it -- inane, boring, strained. And are we supposed to like this kid? If I lived in his neighborhood back in the day I, like the rest of the kids, would have wanted to beat him up. Read the other one star reviews on Goodreads if you are even contemplating reading this. Thank goodness the audiobook was free because if I had spent a dime on it, I would have been mad at myself.

The one redeeming quality of the audiobook is that it is narrated by George Guidall, who is the GOAT.

Reason Read: special event/March 2024.
This story by Henry Roth, published in 1934, out of print for a number of years was reprinted in 1960, is the story of the immigrant experience, specifically the Jewish immigrant. It is most likely set in the time period of the early 20th century. 1907 brought the greatest number of immigrants through Ellis Island into New York City where they mostly stayed and turned the streets into slums.

The family consists of David Schearl, a 6 y/o boy, his mother Genya and his father Albert. Other characters include; Bertha, sister to Genya, Reb Yidel, Rabbi teaching David who is an exceptional student, Leo a Catholic boy.

While this is the story of the immigrant experience it is more than that. It is also the story of a family and family secrets. It is a story of language and dialects. There is Yiddish, Irish, Polish, English, Hebrew. It is a story of culture; Jewish, Yiddish, Catholic, slum culture. It also looks at feminist experience. The patriarchal society, the consumerism of American Society.

Themes include the mother son bond, oedipal rivals, parricide, "purity".

David becomes fixated on a passage from Isaiah where Isaiah's unclean lips are cleansed with a burning coal. David sees a "white light" one day, he decides that this is what is being referred to in Isaiah. So there is the theme of purity. David resists sexual explorations that other boys seek. His aunts step daughters are another example.

There is much to glean in the novel. It is a great example of the Jewish novel, I think. I would recommend this to anyone who likes to read about Jewish experience but also the immigrant experience.

I guess I am the outlier here. But I just got done reading several novels that I simply did not like so maybe it was just a relief to finally read something that I found to be worth while.