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    Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen
    Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen
    Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen
    Audiobook7 hours

    Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen

    Written by Mary Norris

    Narrated by Mary Norris

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    "Hilarious. . . . This book charmed my socks off." ?Patricia O'Conner, New York Times Book Review Mary Norris has spent more than three decades in The New Yorker's copy department, maintaining its celebrated high standards. Now she brings her vast experience, good cheer, and finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in a boisterous language book as full of life as it is of practical advice. Greek to Me features Norris's laugh-out-loud descriptions of some of the most common and vexing problems in spelling, punctuation, and usage?comma faults, danglers, "who" vs. "whom," "that" vs. "which," compound words, gender-neutral language?and her clear explanations of how to handle them. Down-to-earth and always open-minded, she draws on examples from Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, and the Lord's Prayer, as well as from The Honeymooners, The Simpsons, David Foster Wallace, and Gillian Flynn. She takes us to see a copy of Noah Webster's groundbreaking Blue-Back Speller, on a quest to find out who put the hyphen in Moby-Dick, on a pilgrimage to the world's only pencil-sharpener museum, and inside the hallowed halls of The New Yorker and her work with such celebrated writers as Pauline Kael, Philip Roth, and George Saunders. Readers?and writers?will find in Norris neither a scold nor a softie but a wise and witty new friend in love with language and alive to the glories of its use in America, even in the age of autocorrect and spell-check. As Norris writes, "The dictionary is a wonderful thing, but you can't let it push you around."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 2, 2019
    ISBN9781501948800
    Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen

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    Reviews for Greek to Me

    3.5/5

    52 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Lovely short book about the author’s experiences learning Greek (classical and modern) and her travels in Greece. She’s a great writer so I think I’d be happy to read her grocery list if she decided to publish it. I love her tone of voice, it’s educated and plain-talk all at once, with loads of humor, much of it directed at herself.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A somewhat adorable misfire, almost more personal memoir than paean to Greece. It took me over a year to finish it: Norris seems to spend every other sentence of the book's first half explaining virtually every English word with Greek roots, and being the kind of guy who reads books by copy editors (such as Mary Norris), I know that stuff. When I finally returned to the book, it got better, with less etymology (Gk. etymon, a true thing + logos, word) and more travel reporting from places like Crete, and Eleusis, classical site of the Eleusinian mysteries and now an industrial wasteland of tire centers and factories. Norris is an eccentric guide who presents herself as a species of idiot savant, a working-class escapee from the know-nothing Midwest who enjoys the most obscure heights of intellectual pursuit while also admitting huge gaps in general knowledge. This is admirable, but becomes a bit too cute. She'll use the word "autochthonous" in one breath, and in the next, add the phrase "(not the one in Ohio)" to her hundredth mention of Athens, just as a joke.There are things to learn here, but my patience was tested. Fortunately, the book is small. I would approach the book like a magazine article. Don't work too hard at paying attention. Read quickly, scan over what doesn't interest you, take a few notes for further exploration, and call it good.
    • 3/5
      Charming. Well written. For language lovers.
    • 4/5
      Mary Norris has written a fine paean to her love of the Greek language, and the whole experience of Greece, both physical and mental. The prose is what one would expect of a "New Yorker" copy editor. That is to say (I, know Mary, that is a "Filler" phrase) It is precise and grammatically perfect. Into the bargain, the prose is the tool of a fine eye, and a ebullient humour on many topics. Read this book, and even, buy it! You will learn a good deal about the Greek language, and the English language, and writers in English about Greece, as well as even about the classical writers...This is a book filled with Greek Sunshine!
    • 4/5
      Delightful piece of fluff concerning the author's love affair with all things Greek: language, buth ancient and modern; etymology and history of same; and her adventures in Greece and its islands. Fast-paced and full of information tidbits.