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+--- Thread: Abe (/thread-1340.html)
Abe - Maggers - 11-26-2005
I might get crucified for this, but what the heck. It's how I feel.
Abe is my age. I have a great many Jewish friends who are his age. My ex-husband, who is Jewish, is his age. I live and work with many, many Jewish men who are Abe's age. Not of one of them speaks like Abe.
My problem with Abe is this: he does not sound like a single, solitary Jewish person of my age. If he were 20 or 30 years older, his Yiddishisms would be more appropriate. From what I understand, Abe was born and raised in New York. As he is written, I think Abe is an anachronism, more of a caricature than a true character. Abe is the sole character in the RJ series who does not ring 100% true for me.
Every Jew I know uses Yiddishisms here and there. I do, too, as do many New Yorkers, Jewish or not. But no one I know who is his age speaks like Abe. Older New Yorkers do; some of the older parents or grandparents of my Jewish friends may sound like Abe.
I love Abe's heart and the man that he is. I love how he fits into Jack's life. But Abe is not real for me.
I've turned a few Jewish friends on to the RJ series. They like the books, but to a person, they are uncomfortable with Abe and find the way he is written to be a detraction from the series.
Abe - Tempest - 11-26-2005
I felt rather similiar, until reading Infernal. I think the fact that he was an intellectual in college and that he really has no friends (besides Jack) could partially explain his language - perhaps it is a link to his past (about which we know next to nothing).
Abe - Richard Kendrick - 11-26-2005
I like to take into consideration when FPW started writing that character. Abe would really be a much older guy now had he aged in real time since The Tomb was written. It would have been odd for FPW to change Abe later on to suit a more modern time.
RIK
Abe - Lisa - 11-26-2005
I think another part of the problem is that The Tomb was written in the early 80s but the characters in the RJ series haven't aged since then. Twenty-plus years ago, maybe it made more sense to have an old Jewish New Yorker guy talking like Abe? Just making a guess. I know nothing about New Yorkers except that some of them inexplicably like the Yankees.
Abe - jaybird - 11-26-2005
I dont really have a problem with Abe. He seems like an O.K. sort of guy.I feel a kindship with him. We are both stuck in the past. I wonder if he has any 80's cassettes he would want to trade. Im sure in his bombshelter of a store there might be a few long lost albums.
Abe - Maggers - 11-26-2005
jaybird Wrote:I dont really have a problem with Abe. He seems like an O.K. sort of guy.I feel a kindship with him. We are both stuck in the past. I wonder if he has any 80's cassettes he would want to trade. Im sure in his bombshelter of a store there might be a few long lost albums.
It's not that I don't have a kinship with Abe. It's how he speaks; it's just not realistic. Also, if Abe were keeping albums that he was fond of, I suspect they'd be decades older than a selection from the 1980's.
I think that Lisa has hit on something. Abe was in his early 50's when he was first written 20 years ago; if he'd aged over time, he'd be in his mid-seventies now. I could live with his Yiddishisms at that age, but I still think they are over the top.
Another thing about Abe, I suspect that he hides behind his ethnic language and affectations. When he gets serious, I think they fade and he speaks more normally.
Abe - Maggers - 11-26-2005
Lisa Wrote:... old Jewish New Yorker guy talking like Abe..
Hey you young whippersnapper, watch who you're calling old! Abe's my age. :eek:
Abe - Hawkou8 - 11-26-2005
Maggers Wrote:Hey you young whippersnapper, watch who you're calling old! Abe's my age. :eek:
How about this, lets talk FPW into doing a small Repairman Jack piece and distributing it just to the members of the message boards, kind of a " here's one for you" What would Jack do? WWJD.................
Abe - KRW - 11-26-2005
Lisa Wrote:I think another part of the problem is that The Tomb was written in the early 80s but the characters in the RJ series haven't aged since then. Twenty-plus years ago, maybe it made more sense to have an old Jewish New Yorker guy talking like Abe? Just making a guess. I know nothing about New Yorkers except that some of them inexplicably like the Yankees.
But he doesn't talk like that in "The Tomb". Yes he does a few Yiddishisms, but his speach isn't peppered with them. It does seem like he uses Yiddish a lot more in the later novels than in the origanal. (The 80's version)
KRW
Abe - Ken Valentine - 11-26-2005
Maggers Wrote:Another thing about Abe, I suspect that he hides behind his ethnic language and affectations. When he gets serious, I think they fade and he speaks more normally.
EXACTLY!
I don't at the moment remember which book it was in (blast my memory) but when he was stressed, Abe lost his accent and fell back to using standard English. So you're right, it is an affectation.
Ken V.