Rating: 
Summary: Dark foray through early 20'th century immigrant NYC
Review: (This review refers to the Recorded Books Inc. edition.) - Very good performance by the Recorded Book reader, but a more depressing book I should hope never to read!
Rating: 
Summary: An American classic
Review: An immigrant child's inside view of his own terrifying world is at the heart of this book. The author uses a stream-of- consciousness technique and creates a unique English Yiddish poetic language through which the world is seen. The child's relation to his distant father, the cruelty the child suffers is movingly portrayed .So too his encounters with the world , search for love, meetings with women.
The pains of an immigrant world, of trying to find one's way in a strange land, are also vividly portayed here.
True literature burns through every line of this work.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, Wonderful, and disturbingly REAL
Review: Call it Sleep is a good book for a reader with patience. Although the majority of the book seems drawn out, it is completely worthwhile and necessary for the ending, which is PHENOMINAL! So if you're a hard-core reader, put this one to the test... it's style is one I've rarely seen paralelled!
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, Wonderful, and disturbingly REAL
Review: Call it Sleep is a good book for a reader with patience. Although the majority of the book seems drawn out, it is completely worthwhile and necessary for the ending, which is PHENOMINAL! So if you're a hard-core reader, put this one to the test... it's style is one I've rarely seen paralelled!
Rating:
Summary: A Must-read Novel
Review: Call It Sleep is a powerful story about a young Jewish immigrant boy who seeks to find his own identity amidst the cultural disarray of early 20th century America. In the novel, Roth reveals the sacrifice immigrants must make in order to assimilate into the American culture. Essentially, the novel is about a shift from an old way of life to a new way. Capturing the heart of this theme is Reb Yidel Pankower. As this rabbi ponders the condition of his pupils, he realizes that they do not understand who they are and what has happened to their people. In a sense, the rabbi mourns because he feels that the Jewish culture is inevitably dying in America. He refers to this as being "an evil day" (p. 375).
Rating:
Summary: puts the lessons of joyce into a modern context
Review: Call It Sleep, the first novel of Henry Roth, is the book that must be be next in your life. To get pedantic about it, Call It Sleep is the logical (don't think about it -- logic has little to do with the visceral impact) outgrowth of the lessons of novel-craft as demonstrated in James Joyce's Ulysses (read Roth's later books, Mercy of a Rude Stream et al. to find out more). No literate person should neglect this striking work. It is another example (and perhaps the finest) of how the simple is the most complex; its story will find that part of you that needs to hear it most and you will never be sorry. Blah Blah -- THE AMERICAN NOVEL. READ IT AGAIN.
Rating: 
Summary: a book for hard core English majors
Review: Having been an English major in college, I know this is the kind of book that English profs love to teach. This is also the kind of book that I think is best enjoyed in an English class setting, because I didn't get much out of it on my own, despite my English studies background. I was constantly plagued by the annoying nature of David, a sissy mama's boy who is terrified of anything and everything in the world. The story moved slowly and some of the language was hard to wade through. Like I said, this is best read in a classroom/discussion setting.
Rating: 
Summary: Ramblings of a child
Review: Henry Roth's book "Call It Sleep" truly describes with great depth, feeling and emotion, the American Immigrant experience. Roth chose to use a 7 year old boy to narrate his story, thus making it more visceral and intense. Roth takes advantage of a 7 year old's state of mind and innocence, to portray the mid-childhood experience in a NY City East Side tenement ghetto.Though Roth happened to choose a Jewish part of the ghetto to portray in his story, the true beauty and excellence of the book, is that the story could have taken place in any one of the ghettos of New York City. It can easily be generalized to the Irish immigrant experience, or the Chinese immigrant experience, or the Italian immigrant experience or virtually any other immigrant experience at that time. All of those immigrants experienced this cultural mixing and its attendant discriminations as immigrants in New York City in the 1920's and 1930's. Roth published his book in the midst of the depression in 1934. But it came to real prominence when printed in paperback in 1964. The books true appeal is that it is universal to all Americans, except Native American Indians. All of the rest of Americans immigrated somewhere in their past. And thus, whether one be an immigrant today, or a 1st generation American or 2nd or 3rd, even if our ancestors came over on the Mayflower, we are all immigrants somewhere in our past. Even if one's ancestors were Pilgrims, parts of Roth's book would ring true for them as well. Through the use of intricate analysis of the thoughts of Roth's main character, he portrays those innate emotions that we have all experienced, and from time to time, continue to experience. The book is highly informative, highly emotional and highly entertaining. It reads very quickly, and is written impeccably. "Call It Sleep" is truly one book that all Americans should have in their collection.
Rating:
Summary: The Quintessential American Immigrant Experience
Review: Henry Roth's book "Call It Sleep" truly describes with great depth, feeling and emotion, the American Immigrant experience. Roth chose to use a 7 year old boy to narrate his story, thus making it more visceral and intense. Roth takes advantage of a 7 year old's state of mind and innocence, to portray the mid-childhood experience in a NY City East Side tenement ghetto. Though Roth happened to choose a Jewish part of the ghetto to portray in his story, the true beauty and excellence of the book, is that the story could have taken place in any one of the ghettos of New York City. It can easily be generalized to the Irish immigrant experience, or the Chinese immigrant experience, or the Italian immigrant experience or virtually any other immigrant experience at that time. All of those immigrants experienced this cultural mixing and its attendant discriminations as immigrants in New York City in the 1920's and 1930's. Roth published his book in the midst of the depression in 1934. But it came to real prominence when printed in paperback in 1964. The books true appeal is that it is universal to all Americans, except Native American Indians. All of the rest of Americans immigrated somewhere in their past. And thus, whether one be an immigrant today, or a 1st generation American or 2nd or 3rd, even if our ancestors came over on the Mayflower, we are all immigrants somewhere in our past. Even if one's ancestors were Pilgrims, parts of Roth's book would ring true for them as well. Through the use of intricate analysis of the thoughts of Roth's main character, he portrays those innate emotions that we have all experienced, and from time to time, continue to experience. The book is highly informative, highly emotional and highly entertaining. It reads very quickly, and is written impeccably. "Call It Sleep" is truly one book that all Americans should have in their collection.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece for sure
Review: I didn't read this novel in English and I'm sure I've missed a lot.. but even in Italian this novel is absolutely great and one of the best I encountered in my life. I don't agree with the guy who think that's incredible so few people read this book: it's logical instead because of the fews who want to understand and look into their minds and experiences.
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