Call It Sleep Chapter Summary & Analysis - Book I: The Cellar Summary

Book I: The Cellar Summary

Book I, comprised of sixteen short chapters, details the experiences that begin to shape the personality of a young child living in the slums of New York City. David is now almost six and appears to be settled into a typical life in an urban slum. He lives with his parents on the second floor of a three-story flat, the first floor being reserved for the cellar, of which David is horribly afraid. His daily routine involves tearing yesterday's page from the calendar and saving it in a shoe box, playing outside until the noon whistle blows, signaling lunch, and returning outside again until the the whistle blows to signal quitting time. David has a "sometime" playmate, Yussie, who has moved into the flat above his, although they do not appear to have much in common. He seems to prefer solitude and the activity of watching other children play,...
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