|
|
Article: Henry Roth's epic: Ira breaking away
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- July 14, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
MERCY OF A RUDE STREAM
Volume III, From Bondage
By Henry Roth. 396 pp. Illustrated. $25.95.
In reading a work as strange and original as this, the third of six
volumes of "Mercy of a Rude Stream," one can easily understand the
irritable, baffled response of high-ranking critics to a work like
"Moby-Dick." No matter how many novels one might have read, there is
no ready template with which to measure this one. Henry Roth is no
Herman Melville; still, surely nothing like this series has been
written before, nor will be again, nor will there occur again so
curious a literary career. Not being a high-ranking literary critic,
I herewith take the risk of saying that whether praised or scorned, ...