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Las aguas de Manhattan
Cuando en 1930 Charkes Reznikoff publicó Las aguas de Manhattan, el canon literario estadounidense estaba ya cerrado y parecía indiferente a las aportaciones de los últimos llegados a la tierra de las oportunidades. Que el estilo de su autor fuera engañosamente sencillo e influido por la cadencia del yidis y la Torá solo hizo que resultase aún más fácil ignorarlo. Sin embargo, el tiempo demostraría que su novela es, junto a Llámalo sueño de Henry Roth, el otro gran pilar de la literatura judía en lengua inglesa, que figuras como Saul Bellow o Bernard Malamud se encargarían de afianzar.
Participando a la vez de la saga familiar y del Bildungsroman, la historia se presenta bajo la forma de un díptico bien diferenciado: en su primera parte, se narran los esfuerzos de la tenaz Sarah Yetta por salir adelante en una empobrecida comunidad de la Rusia zarista, mientras consigue emigrar a Nueva York en pos de una vida mejor; la segunda detalla los desvelos de su soñador hijo Ezekiel, quien, nacido ya en el Nuevo Mundo, lucha a su vez por abrirse camino en una ciudad tan despiadada como fascinante.
Participando a la vez de la saga familiar y del Bildungsroman, la historia se presenta bajo la forma de un díptico bien diferenciado: en su primera parte, se narran los esfuerzos de la tenaz Sarah Yetta por salir adelante en una empobrecida comunidad de la Rusia zarista, mientras consigue emigrar a Nueva York en pos de una vida mejor; la segunda detalla los desvelos de su soñador hijo Ezekiel, quien, nacido ya en el Nuevo Mundo, lucha a su vez por abrirse camino en una ciudad tan despiadada como fascinante.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1930
3 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
Charles Reznikoff
68 books38 followersCharles Reznikoff (1894-1976) était avec Carl Rakosi, George Oppen et Louis Zukofsky un des quatre poètes du courant dit «objectiviste» américain, qui commencèrent à publier, de manière confidentielle, dans les années vingt du siècle dernier. De Charles Reznikoff ont été publiés en France, Témoignage, Les États-Unis, 1885-1890, un fragment du présent volume (Hachette/P.O.L, 1981, traduction par Jacques Roubaud), aujourd'hui épuisé ; Le Musicien, roman (P.O.L, 1986, traduction par Emmanuel Hocquard et Claude Richard) ; Holocauste (Prétexte, 2007, traduction Jean-Paul Auxeméry). Dans un entretien publié dans Contemporary Literature Charles Reznikoff, pour décrire sa démarche, citait un poète chinois du XIᵉ siècle qui disait : «La poésie présente l'objet afin de susciter la sensation. Elle doit être très précise sur l'objet et réticente sur l'émotion». Sans doute n'est-il pas inutile, aujourd'hui, de présenter avec Témoignage, Les États-Unis (1885-1915) une des illustrations les plus complètes et convaincantes de ce programme. Témoignage, Les États-Unis (1885-1915) est une vaste fresque pour décrire l'entrée des États-Unis dans l'ère moderne à travers la restitution minutieuse et la mise en forme de rapports d'audience de tribunaux amenés à juger aussi bien de conflits de voisinage ou de succession que d'accidents du travail ou de faits divers atroces. Son édition poursuit le travail entamé en 1981 avec la publication de Témoignage, Les États-Unis, 1885-1890 et du Musicien.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 1, 2025
A Poet's Rare Novel Of The Immigrant Experience
Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 -- January 22, 1976) was one of the founders of objectivist poetry. Spare. restrained, and understated, Reznikoff's poetry is at its best when it describes New York City and its loneliness. Reznikoff's poetry retains a small group of devoted readers. John Martin and Black Sparrow Press did the great service of republishing Reznikoff's poems and other writings which might otherwise have been forgotten.
Reznikoff's novels, unhappily, are even more obscure than his poems. Reznikoff's first novel "By the Waters of Manhattan" (1930) was the first of his writings to be commercially published. (The early volumes of poetry were self-published.)The book received critical acclaim but failed commercially. It was republished in 1986 with an introduction by Milton Hindus,a Reznikoff scholar, and has recently appeared in this new edition from the successor of John Martin's Black Sparrow Press.
The novel is made by its style which shares many of the qualities of Reznikoff's poetry. The writing is simple, direct, and restrained. The writing shows a close eye for places, people, and emotion; but it does not shout. The story is told in a sober, chaste manner in which the voice and opinions of the author seem virtually absent. The reader is left to bring feeling and understanding to the written word.
Roughly the first half of the book takes place in old Russia before the 20th Century. Although the story involves a large and poor extended Jewish family, it has two primary characters: Ezekiel Volsky and his daughter Sarah Yetta. Ezekiel wanders from town to town trying to support his family through various jobs. Intelligent and agressive, Sarah Yetta longs for an education which is denied her. She becomes the mainstay of the family when she learns to sew and, as an adolescent, takes on several young girls as employees. She cannot accept the suitors or matches that are offered to her because she feels she does not respect the young men. When her father Exekiel dies, the family discovered his lengthy manuscripts of poetry written in Hebrew --- doubtless explaining why he was at best an indifferent success in supporting his family. His wife Hannah burns the poems for fear that they contain radical political views. As she does so, she observes ""Here's a man's life." Soon thereafter, Sarah Yetta leaves her family to emmigrate to the United States. This first part of the novel is slow but it describes life in Czarist Russia in a measured, dispassionate tone without special pleading, histrionics, or judgment.
The second section of the book deals with immigrant life in New York City. It basically has two parts. Its immediate focus is Sarah Yetta as she tries to succeed in her new life. Reznikoff shows her in the large, unhealthy tenements boarding with relatives and in many sweatshops seeking work as a seamstress. He offers a detailed, unsentimentalized portrayal of life on the Lower East Side. Sarah Yetta meets a cousin from Russia, Saul, who is two years younger than herself and marries him.
In the last part of the book, the focus shifts to Saul and Sarah Yetta's son, Ezekiel, named after his grandfather. The couple are in their 40s but broken and bent from their lives in the sweatshops. They have two young daughters to support in addition to their grown son. Exekiel is a young man of 21 who spends his days reading but does not know how to support himself. He leases a small basement store from a grocer and manages to open a bookstore, selling, at first, what today would be the equivalent of remainders. One of his first customers is an elegant, well-to-do and lovely young woman named Jane Dauthendey who, Ezekiel learns, is part Jewish. The couple slowly become involved, but their story is left unresolved at the end of the novel. As was his grandfather, Ezekiel is torn in the story between the need to support himself and his desire for art and the life of the mind. Reznikoff offers beautifully realistic pictures of Ezekiel's torment, as well as of the streets, bridges, automats, gaslights, parks,storefronts, and tenements of old New York. Born in the United States, Ezekiel is an alientated, drifting young man. His life brings disappointment to the hopes of Sarah Yetta and Ezekiel. "We are a lost generation", Sarah Yetta observes, "It is for our children to do what they can."
In his review of "By the Waters of Manhattan", the critic Lionel Trilling noted that by virtue of the simplicity and clarity of his language and expression, Reznikoff had "written the first story of the Jewish immigrant that is not false." The story is told in an unsentimenal manner without the political preaching that often marred similar works by Reznikoff's contemporaries or by earlier writers. The restrained, subtle nature of this novel is not of the type that will appeal to a mass of readers. But in its understated, poetic eloquence, this is a novel that describes faithfully New York City and its early East European immigrants. The novel deserves to be read and remembered.
Robin Friedman
Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 -- January 22, 1976) was one of the founders of objectivist poetry. Spare. restrained, and understated, Reznikoff's poetry is at its best when it describes New York City and its loneliness. Reznikoff's poetry retains a small group of devoted readers. John Martin and Black Sparrow Press did the great service of republishing Reznikoff's poems and other writings which might otherwise have been forgotten.
Reznikoff's novels, unhappily, are even more obscure than his poems. Reznikoff's first novel "By the Waters of Manhattan" (1930) was the first of his writings to be commercially published. (The early volumes of poetry were self-published.)The book received critical acclaim but failed commercially. It was republished in 1986 with an introduction by Milton Hindus,a Reznikoff scholar, and has recently appeared in this new edition from the successor of John Martin's Black Sparrow Press.
The novel is made by its style which shares many of the qualities of Reznikoff's poetry. The writing is simple, direct, and restrained. The writing shows a close eye for places, people, and emotion; but it does not shout. The story is told in a sober, chaste manner in which the voice and opinions of the author seem virtually absent. The reader is left to bring feeling and understanding to the written word.
Roughly the first half of the book takes place in old Russia before the 20th Century. Although the story involves a large and poor extended Jewish family, it has two primary characters: Ezekiel Volsky and his daughter Sarah Yetta. Ezekiel wanders from town to town trying to support his family through various jobs. Intelligent and agressive, Sarah Yetta longs for an education which is denied her. She becomes the mainstay of the family when she learns to sew and, as an adolescent, takes on several young girls as employees. She cannot accept the suitors or matches that are offered to her because she feels she does not respect the young men. When her father Exekiel dies, the family discovered his lengthy manuscripts of poetry written in Hebrew --- doubtless explaining why he was at best an indifferent success in supporting his family. His wife Hannah burns the poems for fear that they contain radical political views. As she does so, she observes ""Here's a man's life." Soon thereafter, Sarah Yetta leaves her family to emmigrate to the United States. This first part of the novel is slow but it describes life in Czarist Russia in a measured, dispassionate tone without special pleading, histrionics, or judgment.
The second section of the book deals with immigrant life in New York City. It basically has two parts. Its immediate focus is Sarah Yetta as she tries to succeed in her new life. Reznikoff shows her in the large, unhealthy tenements boarding with relatives and in many sweatshops seeking work as a seamstress. He offers a detailed, unsentimentalized portrayal of life on the Lower East Side. Sarah Yetta meets a cousin from Russia, Saul, who is two years younger than herself and marries him.
In the last part of the book, the focus shifts to Saul and Sarah Yetta's son, Ezekiel, named after his grandfather. The couple are in their 40s but broken and bent from their lives in the sweatshops. They have two young daughters to support in addition to their grown son. Exekiel is a young man of 21 who spends his days reading but does not know how to support himself. He leases a small basement store from a grocer and manages to open a bookstore, selling, at first, what today would be the equivalent of remainders. One of his first customers is an elegant, well-to-do and lovely young woman named Jane Dauthendey who, Ezekiel learns, is part Jewish. The couple slowly become involved, but their story is left unresolved at the end of the novel. As was his grandfather, Ezekiel is torn in the story between the need to support himself and his desire for art and the life of the mind. Reznikoff offers beautifully realistic pictures of Ezekiel's torment, as well as of the streets, bridges, automats, gaslights, parks,storefronts, and tenements of old New York. Born in the United States, Ezekiel is an alientated, drifting young man. His life brings disappointment to the hopes of Sarah Yetta and Ezekiel. "We are a lost generation", Sarah Yetta observes, "It is for our children to do what they can."
In his review of "By the Waters of Manhattan", the critic Lionel Trilling noted that by virtue of the simplicity and clarity of his language and expression, Reznikoff had "written the first story of the Jewish immigrant that is not false." The story is told in an unsentimenal manner without the political preaching that often marred similar works by Reznikoff's contemporaries or by earlier writers. The restrained, subtle nature of this novel is not of the type that will appeal to a mass of readers. But in its understated, poetic eloquence, this is a novel that describes faithfully New York City and its early East European immigrants. The novel deserves to be read and remembered.
Robin Friedman
November 19, 2025
Finish: 23.02.2024
Title: By the Waters of Manhattan (1930)
Genre: novella (170 pg)
Rating: A
Good news: Part 1: It felt chaotic..but that was just an imaging of young Sara Yetta’s life. At 12 yr she yearned to get an education and perhaps leave her home and venture to America…but was trapped in the traditional life of the poor in old Russia.
Part 2 It felt hopeful and was a tender love story. Twenty years later….we follow Sara’s son in NYC Lower East side persue his dreams. He wants create a small business (bookstore).
Good news: Strong point: The book was written two different styles: part 1 – 95% dialogue; part 2 – 95% inner monologue. In part 2 Eziek reveals his planning, problem solving, self-reflection, emotions. Reznikoff impressed me b/c he completely changed his style ….and I was captivated!
Personal: This book was hard to come by and expensive! But I wanted to read another book about the immigrant experience 1920s-1930s in Brooklyn/Lower East side to challenge what I read (…and did not like) in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”.
Charles Reznikoff runs circles around Betty Smith’s book and is 326 pages SHORTER!! If you can find Reznikoff’s book in the library …it is well worth 3 hrs of your reading time!
Want to read
October 24, 2014referenced in modpo week 7
April 12, 2018
I've been meaning to dive into Reznikoff for a while now, as everything I had heard about his style intrigued me. I figured it'd be easier to start with a novel than with poetry, so I went with this one - the name really evoked something in me, and sometimes that's enough.
It was a really enjoyable read - the book is split in two halves, one generation in each. What I really enjoyed is how Reznikoff used his actual style and voice differently in each half as well. The first half makes use of his trademark Objectivist style (NOT to be confused with Ayn Rand's Objectivism philosophy, thank you very much) to tell us the family history in a way that feels like stories passed down from generation, the sort of things a parent might tell their young child growing up. In the second half, we follow a son in the next generation, and the style becomes more descriptive, more real, following characters' thoughts and feelings a bit more personally than in the first half. However the style is still largely pared down compared to other works - Reznikoff has a very non-showy way of writing that I found quite enjoyable and refreshing, lending an honest authenticity to the work.
Characters, by and large, feel vivid and special. The first half had me captivated as each page felt like it was pulling me into a history I had never been a part of and yet felt at home in. The second half starts off quite well, but introduces a love story that didn't quite deliver for me. We never really seem to get to know the main character's love interest in a way that brings her to life. At least to me she was the weakest character, which made the last quarter of the book a bit of a drag but it still had its moments.
All in all, this was a beautifully written story that pulled me in from page one.
It was a really enjoyable read - the book is split in two halves, one generation in each. What I really enjoyed is how Reznikoff used his actual style and voice differently in each half as well. The first half makes use of his trademark Objectivist style (NOT to be confused with Ayn Rand's Objectivism philosophy, thank you very much) to tell us the family history in a way that feels like stories passed down from generation, the sort of things a parent might tell their young child growing up. In the second half, we follow a son in the next generation, and the style becomes more descriptive, more real, following characters' thoughts and feelings a bit more personally than in the first half. However the style is still largely pared down compared to other works - Reznikoff has a very non-showy way of writing that I found quite enjoyable and refreshing, lending an honest authenticity to the work.
Characters, by and large, feel vivid and special. The first half had me captivated as each page felt like it was pulling me into a history I had never been a part of and yet felt at home in. The second half starts off quite well, but introduces a love story that didn't quite deliver for me. We never really seem to get to know the main character's love interest in a way that brings her to life. At least to me she was the weakest character, which made the last quarter of the book a bit of a drag but it still had its moments.
All in all, this was a beautifully written story that pulled me in from page one.
June 18, 2020
El final rápido y sin sentido
November 26, 2020
Well-observed, non-nonsense accounting of the lives of working class Jews in late czarist Russia and then, after immigration, in early 20th Century USA. Sturdy and honest, not terribly exciting.
December 27, 2015
I can’t recall what prompted me to read about Reznikoff, but it was enough to inspire the purchase of this novel and Holocaust, one of his more typical works, a volume of poetry. There’s an affinity in his writing to the plain-spoken voice of William Carlos Williams (in both his poetry and in the trilogy which begins with White Mule), and this affinity includes period and setting. Reznikoff tells an immigration story of two generations, of the young Jewish girl who leaves Russia at the turn of the 20th century to live in New York City. Her poignant and gritty story is followed by an account of the life of her son Ezekiel, whose aspirations to become a writer and artist entail the practicalities, first, of becoming a bookseller. The onerous day-to-day ordinariness of the lives in this novel are compellingly portrayed, and the emotions are honest and earned.
By the Waters of Manhattan employs ordinary language, and Reznikoff eschews style and ornament, neither interpolating or overlaying the narrative with additional poetic or affective language. I look forward to reading the poetry of Holocaust. I expect to find verse that is “transcribed” from ordinary records written in ordinary language, which will with this author's prudent understatement make individuals and events more real and emotionally present.
By the Waters of Manhattan employs ordinary language, and Reznikoff eschews style and ornament, neither interpolating or overlaying the narrative with additional poetic or affective language. I look forward to reading the poetry of Holocaust. I expect to find verse that is “transcribed” from ordinary records written in ordinary language, which will with this author's prudent understatement make individuals and events more real and emotionally present.
October 22, 2023
It’s full of too many inconsequential details. Still, if someone is interested in a family’s move to America in the early part of this century, it would be valuable if you can wade through the tedious details of daily life and strife.
May 25, 2014
2.5 stars
May 19, 2024
6.75/10
Read
January 30, 2019Happily, Black Sparrow has reprinted this remarkable novel, which could be read as a one sitting page-turner, or as the text for a semester-long course on the immigrant experience . . . Readers familiar with Reznikoff ‘s poetry will recognize his alter ego’s struggles with the world of publishing; readers curious about the immigrant experience will add this classic to their shelves alongside Yezierska’s novels and other great chronicles of the making of America.
—Jewish Book World
Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976) writes prose like a poet, indeed he is one, with his rock-hard choice of words styled into deceptively simple sentences. Deceptive because when juxtaposed, each sentence accelerating into the next, they relay condensed lives, jammed with emotion, kin, and striving. Lopate’s tender and eloquent introduction sets the record straight for this under-acknowledged literary master: ‘…the shocks of fortune laid out and the aftershocks allowed to register in the reader’s mind, with no attempt to milk emotion.
—Betsy Sussler, BOMB Magazine, 2009
I am thrilled with it. This book has so much in it that marks Reznikoff as a first-rate artist.
—William Carlos Williams
Mr. Reznikoff’s work is remarkable and original in American literature. . . . He has written the first story of the Jewish immigrant that is not false.
—Lionel Trilling
—Jewish Book World
Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976) writes prose like a poet, indeed he is one, with his rock-hard choice of words styled into deceptively simple sentences. Deceptive because when juxtaposed, each sentence accelerating into the next, they relay condensed lives, jammed with emotion, kin, and striving. Lopate’s tender and eloquent introduction sets the record straight for this under-acknowledged literary master: ‘…the shocks of fortune laid out and the aftershocks allowed to register in the reader’s mind, with no attempt to milk emotion.
—Betsy Sussler, BOMB Magazine, 2009
I am thrilled with it. This book has so much in it that marks Reznikoff as a first-rate artist.
—William Carlos Williams
Mr. Reznikoff’s work is remarkable and original in American literature. . . . He has written the first story of the Jewish immigrant that is not false.
—Lionel Trilling
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews