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A review by theclassickid
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
3.0
It's difficult to get through--Roth oftentimes uses phonetic spellings to showcase dialogue between non-English speakers, this slows down the reading. It's set in pre-WWI. It follows a Jewish, Austrian-born, six-year-old boy, who lives in New York. You follow the boy for the next two years; you see him trying to figure out who he is, in a world where his father doesn't like him and where his mother seems to coddle him. It's not the most thrilling read, but it's engaging to see how Roth conveys the different types of dialogue he portrays:
1. The phonetic spelling of English words used by non-native English speakers.
2. The phonetic spelling of English words used by the kids who are growing up in New York.
3. The introduction of Yiddish and Hebrew and his non-direct way of translating these inclusions via the text and
4. The fluency of the foreign languages spoken between characters, showcased in English.
1. The phonetic spelling of English words used by non-native English speakers.
2. The phonetic spelling of English words used by the kids who are growing up in New York.
3. The introduction of Yiddish and Hebrew and his non-direct way of translating these inclusions via the text and
4. The fluency of the foreign languages spoken between characters, showcased in English.