This is simply lazy writing. Cliches pose as specific details, and banal stereotypes substitute for the particularity on which genuine understanding depends. Considering the professional choices and the daily experiences of Roth's Jewish readers, there can be no doubt that most of them had little hesitation in rejecting the world of the Ostjuden . These passages are very disheartening to read. The evening there is a curse, the rising moon a mockery.
Every house comprises five, six, or seven tiny stores.
Every store doubles as an apartment. Over the bed are the children, suspended in bassinets, which misery rocks to and fro. The windows leak a drab yellow light. A strange light that doesn't spread brightness but a kind of gloom with a pale kernel. There is no other people that lives on such a footing with their god.