Review: Terribly executed attempt at vernacular language. Maybe.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2013
Is this language meant to be phonetic, or the writing of someone who is marginally literate? The writer can't handle this conundrum. There is a way to write non-standard language that the reader can understand. That doesn't happen here. An author must have a subtle mastery of language AND speech to write the way an uneducated person SOUNDS and/or SPEAKS. Which one is this supposed to be? I don't know, but I do know that I suffered from a severe apostrophe overdose after attempting to read this. I recommend Russell Hoban's Ridley Walker, to get an idea of how to express nonstandard language. I can't speak on the story, characters or plot, because the gimmick obscures any literary merit this book might have had. I usually don't bother to review a one-star book. But this book sunk under the weight of its own attempted cleverness. Sumbahdee shudduv bay'ta redd dis, den burn'dit.