Henry Roth - Mercy of a Rude Stream - The Complete Novels

While Roth commented numerous times before his death that Mercy of a Rude Stream comprised six volumes, his publisher, along with Felicia Steele, Larry Fox, and Roslyn Targ, all agreed at the time that the work would best be served by appearing as four. In fact, Roth did write six separate books, the first four which he called “Batch One,” and the last two, which he simply labeled “Batch Two” of Mercy for lack of a better title. The truth is that these first four volumes possess a stylistic and thematic unity which are quite distinct from the other two books. The first volume opens with Ira’s move to Harlem, while Volume IV concludes with Ira’s decision to flee Harlem into Edith’s overprotective arms. Likewise, all four volumes take place over a sustained period of thirteen years, from 1914 through the end of 1927. Written in two voices and two type styles (Roth was adamant from the beginning that the Ecclesias passages were essential to the thematic wholeness of the works), the books are linked by a chronologically coherent and unified style.

On the other hand, the two books that Roth called “Batch Two” do not contain an Ecclesias narrator, and jump the reader to the 1930s. They tell the story of Ira’s breakup with Edith Welles and the love affair with a young composer named M, who would soon become his wife. The final revisions that Roth was able to undertake both in 1994 and in 1995 were of From Bondage and Requiem for Harlem , so that the story that unfolds in “Batch Two” was written in the late 1980s and was revised with Felicia Steele in 1990 and 1991.†

“‘You are not required to finish,’ ran the Talmud dictum” notes Roth in the final volume of Mercy , and perhaps the same thing can be said of this opus, as if “the past coalesced into a kind of opaque introspection that marked the end.” As Edith Welles in the story quelled Ira Stigman’s “fears and guilts, as if bleaching them out of sight with her objectivity,” so the same can be said of Roth pecking away at his beloved keyboard at the end of his life. “She [Edith] reduced the onus of his wickedness, eliminated much of the sense of heinousness, quenched the shimmer of guilt, stealth, risk that informed, that magnified his form,” and so do these books, their completion being a deliverance from the vile self-loathing that had consumed Roth for almost all of his life.

“Strange, unhappy lad. Let’s put as much of that behind us as we can,” his mentor and lover — the woman of “brown eyes very large in the sallowness of pallid olive skin”—tells Ira, and Mercy of a Rude Stream , as fine a portrait of the artist in old age as we may ever see, achieves in virtuosic fashion just that what first Edith and later the senescent genius Henry Roth set out to do.

— Robert Weil

September 1997

* Felicia Steele has since become a professor of English at the College of New Jersey. [2014]

† “Batch Two” was subsequently edited posthumously by Willing Davidson, a fiction editor at The New Yorker , serialized by that magazine, and published as one novel by W. W. Norton in 2010. [2014]

Note: Some spellings reflect Galitzianer pronunciations and may seem unfamiliar to speakers of “standard” Yiddish; others, such as cheder rather than kheder , are the most common English spellings. Some words, such as klyasses , are adaptations of English words, and even Yiddish words, such as fress , often have English inflections: fressing .

ABI GESINTas long as you’re healthy

A BISL NAKHESa little satisfaction

A BRUKH AF DIRa curse on you

A BRUKH IZ MIRI’m broken up

A BRUKH UF ZEHa curse on them

A FERD NOCHanother horse; one more horse

AF MAYNE PLAYTSESon my shoulders

A GANTSER HUNDERTERa whole hundred

A GANTSEH YEETa whole Jew

A GITTEN SHABBESa good Sabbath

A GRUBER YINGa coarse lout

A GUTN YUNTIFFa good holiday

AI; AI, YI, YIcry of surprise, alarm, etc

AI BIST DIE A HINT, MEIN ZIENDLEoh, you’re a dog, my son

A KLEEGE SHVARTZEa clever black man

ALLESeverything

ALLES VEIST ERhe knows everything

ALLEVAIwould that

ALIYAHgoing up (as to the pulpit); back to Palestine, now Israel

ALTER KOCKERold man; (der.) old shit

A MEESEH MISHINEH AUF DIRa wretched fate to you

AN ALTE KLYAFTEan old virago

A NAR UND SHOYNa fool already

ANSHULDIG MIRpardon me

APIKOROSheretic; lit. “Epicurean”

A SCHEINEM DANKa handsome thanks

A SHLOCK AUF ISSdamn them

A SHVARTZ GELEKHTERblack humor

A SHVARTZ YURa black year

A SHVARTZ YUR AUF ISit is a black year

AUF EIBIGforever; German EWIG

AUF MIR G’SUKTsaid about me

AUF SHPILKISon pins and needles

AUSGEBRENDT, ICH BIN GANTS AUSGEBRENDTburned out, I am burned out

AUSGESTUDIERTEHstudious

A VEYTIK IZ MIRwoe is me

A YEET MIT A BOORTa Jew with a beard

AZA GITTEH KUPFsuch a good head

AZA KUPFwhat a head

AZA LEBN AF DIRyou should live so

AZA MENSHsuch a man

AZA PARSHEVEH SHMUTZsuch a contemptible louse

AZA PASKUDNYACKsuch a contemptible, odious person

AZA SHVER LEBENliving is so hard

AZ M’VAYST NISHTif you don’t know

AZ NISHT IZ NISHTif not, then not

AZOY?right; is that so?

AZOY DOFF SEINthat’s the way it has to be

AZOY ID ES SHOYNso it is already

AZOY SHEIN UND AZOY TROYRICKso beautiful and so sad

BABBEHgrandmother

BALI GOOLEHstage driver

BAR MITZVAHthe initiation ceremony for young men into Judaism

BARUCHAprayer, blessing

BARUCHESblessings

BARUCH ATAH ADONOI ELOHENU MELEKH HA OYLUM. .Praised are you, Eternal our God, Sovereign of the Universe

BARUCH ATOO ADONOIblessed are thou, Lord

BARUCH HA SHEMblessed be the lord

BEKHELEScups

BENKETbanquet

BENSHT LEKHTto recite benedictions over lit candles on Sabbath eve and holidays

BETTERIENbatteries

BIST DOCH GEBOYREN IN GALITZIAnevertheless you were born in Galitzia

BIST MISHUGEH?are you crazy?

BIST SHOYN A GROYSEH MOYTyou’ve already a big girl

BIST TAKEH MESHIGEHyou’re really crazy

BIST TOCKIN A YOLDyou are indeed a fool

BIYAHsexual intercourse

BLINTZESrolled up pancake with filling

BOORTbeard

BORSHTbeet soup

BRIDERLlittle brother (affectionate, diminutive)