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"Completed in the last year of his life, From Bondage is perhaps Roth's most profound work, for like Tolstoy in The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Roth examines his own imminent passing in the most plaintive of ways, telling the story of the old man, Ira Stigman, who, in spite of his physical frailties, finds solace in re-creating the lost love affair of his youth. Capturing the bohemian downtown world of Manhattan in the 1920s, Roth has set the stage for one of the most memorable of literary show more romances." "At its heart, From Bondage is the mesmerizing love triangle involving young Ira, an impressionable neophyte from Jewish Harlem, and Edith Welles, a sophisticated professor of English, a muse to starving poets and lovelorn men, who sweeps Ira into her world of soigne parties and literary debaucheries. Edith, as the old man Ira relays the story, is still physically involved with her former student Larry Gordon when she finds herself attracted to Ira, who is Larry's best friend. To complicate the matter even more, Edith is also carrying on a simultaneous affair with Lewlyn, the separated husband of the aspiring anthropologist Marcia Meede." "Fictionalizing the lives of the celebrities of the 1920s, including such burgeoning literary figures as Hart Crane, Louise Bogan, Leonie Adams, and Margaret Mead, Roth creates an unforgettable portrait of New York where "the lights of Manhattan twisted toward him across the rippling water like a gimlet." Perhaps the last witness to this age, Roth paints a gentile and genteel world that contrasts so vividly with the seemingly coarse, abject slums of the Pushcart District from which he had sprung. Ira, then a young man, is the observant witness to the spectacle that unfolds, seeking desperately to ingratiate himself into this world of sophisticates, yet hopelessly tethered to the tenement roots he cannot escape."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved show lessTags
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How do you overcome 45 years of writer's block? Thoroughly, it is evident. Though not quite as spectacular as his first masterpiece, Mercy of a Rude Stream, insofar as the first volume of four published, two tba, is a finely made, cuttingly honest sequel. If you are willing to find the beauty in growing old and an impoverished youth, this is the book for you.
A great follow-up to Call It Sleep, not as good as Roth's much-earlier first novel, but definitely worth a read. Some of the references are dated, and therefore a little hard to follow. Overall, this picture of early 20th century New York is a richly colored work of historical fiction.
drôle de type que ce Roth là, à 30 ans il publie un livre qui deviendra un best-seller 30 ans plus tard et en attendant il sombre dans la dépression, qui conserve puisqu'il mourra à 90 ans après avoir publié sur le tard 4 tomes de sa biographie qui devait en compter 6.
Celui-ci en est le premier.
En lisant leurs souvenirs de jeunesse à ce Roth et à l'autre, le Philip, un fond commun en ressort : c'est l'aversion des juifs d''avant-guerre envers les goys ... ça ne pouvait que mal finir.
Le petit Henry ne se remettra jamais de son enfance dans un quartier goy entre une mère juive et un père brutal. On le quitte jeune adolescent à la fin de ce premier tome.
Celui-ci en est le premier.
En lisant leurs souvenirs de jeunesse à ce Roth et à l'autre, le Philip, un fond commun en ressort : c'est l'aversion des juifs d''avant-guerre envers les goys ... ça ne pouvait que mal finir.
Le petit Henry ne se remettra jamais de son enfance dans un quartier goy entre une mère juive et un père brutal. On le quitte jeune adolescent à la fin de ce premier tome.
Nov 22, 2012French
Protagonisti del romanzo sono Ira Stigman e la sua numerosa famiglia, dallo scoppio della prima guerra mondiale all'inizio degli anni Venti. (fonte: Google Books)
May 29, 2020Italian
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10+ Works 3,372 Members
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- Canonical title
- A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park
- Original title
- A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park
- Alternate titles
- A merced de una corriente salvaje
- Original publication date
- 1990
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA
- Important events
- Primera Guerra Mundial
- Epigraph
- Me he aventurado,
Como revoltosos pilluelos que flotan sobre vejigas,
Todos estos veranos, sobre un mar de gloria,
Más allá de donde hago pie. Mi orgullo hinchado
Me reventó al fin debajo, y ahora me ha dejad... (show all)o
Cansado y envejecido para el servicio, a merced
De una corriente salvaje que me ha de cubrir para siempre.
Enrique VIII, III, ii
,
No me atrevo a mostrarme quisquilloso con el sin par Will, pero me pregunto cómo puede describir primero a sus pilluelos consentidos sobre vejigas, flotando en un mar de gloria, y arrastrados luego por una corriente sa... (show all)lvaje..., lo que sugiere un torrente y no un mar, a no ser, desde luego, que se trate de una corriente oceánica, como la del Golfo, pero ésta tiene poco de salvaje. Marea, la otra palabra posible, hubiera sido quizá mas exacta pero ni mucho menos tan feliz.
También me atrevo a observar que, aunque su utilización de la expresión "a merced" es irónica, lo mía no lo es. Es literal. Esa corriente salvaje me otorgó realmente su merced. - Dedication
- A Larry Fox: "Esta es mi mano, amigo fiel."
- First words
- Pleno verano.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Me rindo, Eclesias.
Haces bien. Es un milagro. - Original language
- Inglés
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- 3
