Greek to Me
Adventures of the Comma Queen
by Mary Norris
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Pub Date 2 Apr 2019 | Archive Date 31 Mar 2019
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Description
The Comma Queen returns with a buoyant book about language, love, and the wine-dark sea.
In her New York Times bestseller Between You & Me, Mary Norris delighted readers with her irreverent tales of pencils and punctuation in The New Yorker’s celebrated copy department.
In Greek to Me, she delivers another wise and funny paean to the art of self-expression, this time filtered through her greatest passion: all things Greek. Greek to Me is a charming account of Norris’s lifelong love affair with words and her solo adventures in the land of olive trees and ouzo. Along the way, Norris explains how the alphabet originated in Greece, makes the case for Athena as a feminist icon, goes searching for the fabled Baths of Aphrodite, and reveals the surprising ways Greek helped form English.
Filled with Norris’s memorable encounters with Greek words, Greek gods, Greek wine—and more than a few Greek men—Greek to Me is the Comma Queen’s fresh take on Greece and the exotic yet strangely familiar language that so deeply influences our own.
A Note From the Publisher
LibraryReads votes due by 3/1.
Advance Praise
“What a fantastic book! Not only is Greek to Me educational, entertaining, and gorgeously written, it shows us how intellectual curiosity coupled with a dash of bravery can pave the way for a more meaningful life. Mary Norris does for Greek and Greece what Cheryl Strayed did for hiking. Readers will long to follow in her footsteps.” - Ann Patchett
“I fell in love with Mary Norris’s first book, and am now even more in love with this charming, ribald, highly informed, and always funny excursion through the language, culture, and oddities of Greece and the Greek language. An adventure tale for intellectuals—and also for the rest of us.” - Steve Martin
“In Greek to Me, Mary Norris’ love for all things Greek is palpable and infectious. She is a charming, insightful guide through both ancient and modern glories, and I expect her lush descriptions of the Greek countryside to provoke a tourism stampede.” - Madeline Miller, best-selling author of Circe
“As a reader, I would follow the writer Mary Norris wherever she goes, and I found myself enthralled by this wondrous journey through Greek myths and language and art. Norris brings everything into the glimmering light—most of all the beauty of words.” - David Grann
“Poignant, antic, hilarious, Mary Norris is the definition of wearing your learning lightly, and after a lifetime of Greek immersion, pouring beer libations, and skinny-dipping in the waters of Aphrodite, her lessons slip down sweetly. This book is true ambrosia.” - Caroline Fraser
“Mary Norris, our master grammarian, proves that knowing the rules sets you free. Here she writes about Greek language, culture, and mythology with an untrammeled grace that’s a delight to read and, almost incidentally, a demonstration of high-level literary skill. Greek to Me is a book to dive into—a page-turning and wonderful achievement.” - Ian Frazier
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781324001270 |
| PRICE | US$25.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 240 |
Featured Reviews
Katherine K, Librarian
Part memoir, part travel journal, Greek to Me takes the reader on a journey through the ancient cities and language of Greece. Norris and I have many things in common, like a love of languages and all things Greek, so this was a real treat for me. Her feelings for the mythology and the old world are ones that I've felt myself. Her stories about her travels and herself include aspects of live we can all relate to. An enjoyable treat.
Rosemary S, Librarian
No other writer has made punctuation so much fun. In Norris’s follow-up to Between You & Me, the author manages to get her boss at the New Yorker to pay for ancient Greek language lessons and a trip to Greece. Managing to explore the origins of the English language while simultaneously munching on olives and sipping ouzo. A treat for armchair travelers and those who appreciate the finer points of language and punctuation
Toni N, Librarian
Mary Norris, whose last book, “The Comma Queen,” has done it again; this time by making learning to speak Greek seem easy and traveling the not-so-beaten paths of Greece. While I enjoy Mary’s writing style, I envy her adventurous spirit of travel and her joy of life-long learning.
Mary gives us a few more glimpses of her childhood back in Ohio and her wonderous work environment at the revered, “The New Yorker.” (Even though we’re the same age, I still want to be Mary when I grow up!)
If you had the pleasure of reading her last book in 2015, you might remember that Mary left the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio in 1970 to attend Douglas College, then the women’s college of Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, NJ. (Rutgers didn’t become coed until 1974!) graduating in 1974. She then earned her Masters in English from the University of Vermont two years later. In 1978 she was hired by, “The New Yorker” magazine has remained there to this day as copy editor, and now Author.
Can you tell how proud I am of Mary? I’m also a tiny bit jealous since I’m an alum of Rutgers too. She now lives in NY and I live in OH. Stop laughing.
Okay, back to the book. Mary describes her love of languages and learning, and how one of her colleagues at the New Yorker, Ed Stringham, got her interested in Greece, and then her desire to learn the language. After taking several classes at Columbia and Barnard she has been to Greece many times. During her study of the Ancients she took part in a few plays, starting out in the chorus in Electra and playing Hecuba in The Trojan Women in the next.
Katharine Hepburn had played Hecuba in a 1971 movie version of The Trojan Women. I was a fan of Hepburn, making a point of going to revivals of her films at the Thalia, but I had missed The Trojan Women, and I didn’t dare watch it now, when I had to play the role myself, in a dead language, without her cheekbones.
I decided to write Ms. Hepburn a letter, delivered through her publisher. I asked Ms. Hepburn how she had varied her performance. I had had a little experience in musical comedy, but was it possible, in tragedy, to play it for laughs?
It was a typewritten note on letterhead stationery, dated January 15, 1985, with the name Katharine Houghton Hepburn engraved in red. “Dear Mary Jane Norris,” it began.
“I’m sorry that you missed the movie of The Trojan Women,” Hepburn wrote, and I could picture her chin quivering and hear her intonation. “Of course, we played it for laughs. It’s the only way
Especially Hecuba –” She signed off, “Good luck and you are certain to be a big hit.” It was liberating to know that Hecuba could be outrageous.
Later, at the play:
“Who among Spartans heard you scream?” A woman in the audience laughed! (Hepburn would have been proud.)
The book is strewn with glorious tidbits like these, and I didn’t even include all her adventures while traveling through Greece. Sometimes on foot, or a bicycle, or on a boat talking with Greek sailors. Oh Mary, you’re a clever one. Really, you must read this book.
Every traveler with a shard of imagination ought to be able to discern from a distance the word ΤΑΒΕΡΝΑ and head there confident that in the TAVERNA there will be a narrow straight-backed wicker chair (a little uncomfortable for a big American ass, but you can’t have everything) and a
glass of ouzo, with ice and water, and something to eat— maybe a plate of tiny fried fish, such as one might feed a seal, or feta cheese cut into cubes the size of dice. And, of course, a cat begging under the table.
Πάμε, as the Greeks say. Let’s go!
Thank you to NetGalley, W.W. Norton and Co. and Mary Norris
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