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Reviews by Roberta Liford

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Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
by Jeannette Walls
Don't Hillbillies Have A Regional Accent? (3/25/2010)
After the Glass Castle, her 2nd book was a disappointment (notice it has not maintained any position on the best seller lists as has the Glass Castle). Anyway, I stopped reading when the ladies from Brooklyn appeared. This segment was so ill conceived, and I was so annoyed by her attempt at a detailed portrayal of their "Brooklyn" accents, that I stopped reading at that point. Having been born and raised in Brooklyn, no one in my family, nor anyone I knew, ever spoke with such a Dees Dem and Dose accent. There are people everywhere who speak like that (a class distinction perhaps), not necessarily only from Brooklyn. What's more, hillbillies and others from various regions of the U.S. also have accents -- so if she were going to be explicit about accents, how come she chose to include only what she thought was a "Brooklyn" accent and not any others in their conversations? It seems everyone in her book, including the cowboys spoke perfect English. Half Broke Horses will not make it's way into my permanent library.
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