哈金新小說中的英語問題，請大家評論

最近在紐約客（New Yorker) 上讀到一篇哈金新出版的小說《Free Life》的書評，作者是 John Updike，本人也是大大有名的小說家。
文章中談到哈金小說中的一些英語方麵的問題，看了後不太懂，貼出來請大家討論：
下麵一段是那篇書評的摘錄：
Reaching to encompass the American scene, Ha Jin’s English in “A Free Life” shows more small solecisms than in his Chinese novels. We get a character “licking his compressed teeth,” a tennis court “studded with yellow balls,” “a giant disk [the sun] flaming a good part of the eastern sky,” “the lobby was swarmed with people,” a victim of violence “booted half to death,” eyes that “shone with a stiff light like a crazed man’s,” a “hilly gravel road filled with doglegs,” a swimmer “crawl-stroking to the shore.” Complicated facial maneuvers challenge our ability to visualize: “Unconsciously she combed her upper lip with her teeth”; “His eyebrows were tilting as he kept pushing his flat nose with his knuckle”; “His eyes turned rhomboidal and his face nearly purple.” Metaphorical overload can occur: “In his arms, she was like a meatball with love handles.”

solecisms就是語法上的問題。他列出的有
1.licking his compressed teeth
2.a tennis court “studded with yellow balls”
3.a giant disk [the sun] flaming a good part of the eastern sky,
4.the lobby was swarmed with people
5.a victim of violence “booted half to death”
6.eyes that “shone with a stiff light like a crazed man’s,”
7.a “hilly gravel road filled with doglegs,”
8.a swimmer “crawl-stroking to the shore.”

Complicated facial maneuvers challenge our ability to visualize:
9.Unconsciously she combed her upper lip with her teeth
10.His eyebrows were tilting as he kept pushing his flat nose with his knuckle
11.His eyes turned rhomboidal and his face nearly purple.
12.Metaphorical overload can occur: “In his arms, she was like a meatball with love handles.”

後麵幾個可能是修辭的問題，前八個問題錯在哪，亨利真的是沒看出來。希望朋友們發表意見。

小說中還有一個細節，很有意思:
...recommendation by my former bawss . . . . My bawss was sacked, so we got laid all together.”
“You got what?” Don asked with a start. A young secretary at another desk tittered and turned her pallid face toward the two men.
Realizing he’d left out the adverb “off,” Nan amended, “Sorry, sorry, they used anozzer company, so we all got laid off.”

注意這裏的get laid 與 get laid off的區別，也是一字之差，就差之千裏了。get laid 是上床，難怪邊上小秘要偷著樂。get laid off才是被下崗（課）的意思。