Bridgman reviewed Call it sleep by Henry Roth
Review of 'Call it sleep' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
[a:Henry Roth|26338|Henry Roth|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1265044676p2/26338.jpg]'s [b:Call It Sleep|366524|Call It Sleep|Henry Roth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388873875l/366524.SY75.jpg|1544609] is a classic which wasn't thought much of when originally published, which seems to be true of many of the greatest books.
I'm far too ignorant about anything to go on much about it except to issue a sort of warning and gripe. Roth breaks two of [a:Elmore Leonard|12940|Elmore Leonard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1240015224p2/12940.jpg]'s (and others') ten rules for good writing. Not that his rules are inviolable—Leonard broke his own exclamation rule ("You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose") himself often—and one of the two I disagree with here is to avoid prologues. The one I agree with, however, is Leonard's seventh: "Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly." Call it Sleep has huge amounts of early 20th century Lower East Side dialect spoken by children and while it may be great for linguist historians that someone recorded …
[a:Henry Roth|26338|Henry Roth|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1265044676p2/26338.jpg]'s [b:Call It Sleep|366524|Call It Sleep|Henry Roth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388873875l/366524.SY75.jpg|1544609] is a classic which wasn't thought much of when originally published, which seems to be true of many of the greatest books.
I'm far too ignorant about anything to go on much about it except to issue a sort of warning and gripe. Roth breaks two of [a:Elmore Leonard|12940|Elmore Leonard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1240015224p2/12940.jpg]'s (and others') ten rules for good writing. Not that his rules are inviolable—Leonard broke his own exclamation rule ("You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose") himself often—and one of the two I disagree with here is to avoid prologues. The one I agree with, however, is Leonard's seventh: "Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly." Call it Sleep has huge amounts of early 20th century Lower East Side dialect spoken by children and while it may be great for linguist historians that someone recorded this in print, it slowed down my already slow pace of reading:
Yussie came tripping down out of the upper shadow, and seeing him below, rattled the dim, slender corset-stays.
"Hey, yuh see watta bow'n'arrer I'll hev? I got cawd in mine pocket too, so I'll tie id." He joined David at the landing, took his arm. "C'mon! So I'll show yuh how I'll tie id over hea an' over hea in de middle. Den I'll tie id over hea."
Not indecipherable, but it does take you out of things a bit.
