362. Call It Sleep

Call It Sleep
Henry Roth
1934
Around 460 pages

There sure are a lot of Henrys on this List. Henry Roth almost sounds like a name you would come up with if you were floundering to come up with a real author at a fancy cocktail party. Alas, Henry Roth is very real, and very disturbing.

Call It Sleep tells the story of a Galician Jewish immigrant family in the slums of New York. David Schearl, a six year old boy, has a loving relationship with his mother Genya, but is routinely terrorized by his father Albert. They are soon joined by his mother's sister Bertha, who is coarse, gross, and entirely repulsive to Albert. David eventually meets Leo, an older Catholic boy, who takes advantage of David's affection in the cruelest of ways.

The characters in this novel are so creepy, and David's life is so bleak, that this is a hard novel to get through. Albert made me feel like I was reading an Emile Zola novel again, where the father is an abusive and monstrous boar who makes the entire household miserable. 

The heavy religious themes didn't do much for me, but obviously my heart hurt for David. Interesting to get a Jewish novel on here.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Out of print for nearly 30 years.

UP NEXT: Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. This is a fun one!