Call it sleep

When Henry Roth published Call It Sleep, his first novel, in 1934, it was greeted with critical acclaim. But in that dark Depression year, books were hard to sell, and the novel quickly dropped out of sight, as did its twenty-eight-year-old author. Only with its paperback publication in 1964 did the novel receive the recognition it deserves. Call It Sleep was the first paperback ever to be reviewed on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, and it proceeded to sell millions of copies both in the United States and around the world. It is among the greatest American novels. Told through the consciousness of a young boy, the characters are first generation immigrants, European Jews who speak only Yiddish on arrival, but learning New York street patois and rubbing shoulders with the other immigrant nationalities are spiritually in the melting pot of American culture. It is strong stuff which will make you cry, and occasionally laugh. Much of the dialogue is cleverly done in English language which sounds foreign, like Yiddish or in dense street patois, which is occasionally impenetrable. . .