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A boy contemplates suicide from a diving rock on the Hudson River after being expelled from school for stealing. Ira Stigman has squandered years of sacrifice by his parents, poor Jewish immigrants. Instead of ending his life, however, he decides to start anew, enrolls in another school and goes to university. The setting is New York in the 1920s.Tags
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Member Reviews
Yipes. As a writer, there is no limit to what Roth is capable of. As a biographical entity, there is similarly no limit. Beautiful, unflinching, pushing the limits of emotional accuracy in language. I was *shocked*.
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ThingScore 75
Part of the fascination of "A Diving Rock on the Hudson" is that it is a deliberately unflattering self-portrait of the garrulity and narcissism of old age. This is something we haven't seen before in literature, and if for no other reason, it is valuable as the speech of a tribe until now silenced.
(...) Clearly, this is a different order of work from "Call It Sleep" and must be read with show more different standards. "Call It Sleep" remains a masterpiece; nothing is lost from it, or added to it, by reading its sequels. show less
(...) Clearly, this is a different order of work from "Call It Sleep" and must be read with show more different standards. "Call It Sleep" remains a masterpiece; nothing is lost from it, or added to it, by reading its sequels. show less
added by sneuper
Author Information
10+ Works 3,372 Members
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Diving Rock on the Hudson
- Original title
- A Diving Rock on the Hudson
- Original publication date
- 1995-02
- Epigraph
- In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The Mind-forg’d manacles I hear.
---William Blake, “London”
From Songs of Experience - Dedication
- For Felicia Jean Steele
With profound acknowledgment for the work of my devoted agent, Roslyn Targ, and Robert Weil, editor supreme. - First words
- In the winter of 1921, after completing a year in their newly initiated junior high school, Ira Stigman and Farley Hewin began attending Stuyvesant High School.
- Blurbers
- West, Paul; Smith, Joan; Kanfer, Stefan; Mehegan, David; Shechner, Marc
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 813.52 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1900-1945
- LCC
- PS3535 .O787 .M47 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1900-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 187
- Popularity
- 174,508
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.98)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 2
