He erased the sister but re-inserted her in his later works.

A vividly painted experience of Jewish immigration in the early 1900's. It is told through the eyes of a child, David Schearl, who arrives from Austria-Hungary as a toddler with his parents. The book encompasses several years of David's childhood, as he navigates the streets and gangs of a poor New York neighborhood, the stifling cheder where he learns the Hebrew of his heritage, and the tumult of his family life (his father paranoid and violent, his mother meek and secretive). One of the great things about this novel is its use of language. Yiddish is the most fluid and pure language, (written as English in the book). David's awkwardness with English and the slang of the street kids are rendered phonetically. Then there are Hebrew and Polish phrases, languages David struggles to understand- Hebrew veiling the secrets of religion he yearns to own, Polish used by his parents to conceal information from his innocent ears. But David wants most of all to understand, to belong, to feel safe- and his quest soon brings him to a loss of innocence. I've never read another book that more eloquently depicts what it is like inside the mind of a child. Highly recommended.

From Dog Ear Diary ( )

I tried hard to get through this "classic" but no success in working my way through David Schearl and his neuroses and his brutal father.

4164 Call It Sleep, by Henry Roth (read 23 May 2006) I have intended to read this famed novel, published in 1934, for years. It tells of a Jewish boy, born in Austria, who with his mother comes to New York in 1907 at the age of 2. He is a sensitive boy utterly devoted to his mother and hating his autocratic father. The book covers the boy's life from age 6 to age 9 and while there are some times when the story does not entrance I can but feel reading the book is a memorable experience. The boy, David Schearl, is overwhelmed by his environment, and more acted upon by it than he acting on it. It is a novel of high interest, sometimes (e.g., the account of David's aunt Bertha before her marriage) very funny. A very powerful book, which must live in one's memory. ( )