Ebook Greek to Me Adventures of the Comma Queen eBook Mary Norris

Product details File Size 2639 KB Print Length 233 pages Page Numbers Source ISBN 1324001275 Publisher W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (April 2, 2019) Publication Date April 2, 2019 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B07JX9GT8T

Greek to Me Adventures of the Comma Queen eBook Mary Norris Reviews

• I loved the book. I want to (among other things) applaud the author’s insistence to always use the (ancient or modern) Greek names of gods and heroes, instead of their latinate versions. And, then, she decides to make an exception with... Hecuba -- the sound of which is, to modern Greeks, like something emanating from deepest Africa. But Norris loves the sound so much that she... makes it no less than twenty times!
  
  There couldn’t have been any other culmination of this book than the “meeting” of the author with Patrick Leigh Fermor. She knocks at the door of his house in Kardamyli
  
  "I had stood outside a closed door and felt frustrated if you can’t open a door, it might as well not exist. But a door that opens, as this one now did, framing Elpida, is an invitation to a whole world that had previously been denied."
  
  Elpida is Leigh Fermor’s housekeeper -- but, kind reader, please note that it is also the Greek word for Hope...
• The reviews here are quite good, and I agree with most. Learning Modern Greek is tough for this old geezer too, and accenting the wrong syllable keeps me humble too. I promised my Squeeze I would take her to Greece if she learned some Greek, so I bought this book for her.
  
  Been watching the PBS series, “The Durell’s of Corfu” based on Gerald’s book, but want to read Lawrence’s books now. (BTW, Corfu is what the Italians called the island, the Greeks call it Kerkira.)
  
  Also, after Norris’ description, I want to see the statue of Athena in Nashville, Tennessee. Maybe before I travel to Athens.
• Whether you love history, linguistics, traveling or Greece, (or all of them!) this book is delightful and engaging! Loved it so much that I bought two more as gifts! Enjoy!
• Writing of such grace and wit.
• Mary Norris established herself as a skillful writer and someone who is good company on the page in her previous book. This one is both more personal and less personal - plenty of personal stories but also a lot about Greek and Greece and learning both. If you're familiar with ancient or modern Greek you'll enjoy listening to someone tell stories about learning them and about how they evolved (though she seems to think that the sole predecessor of the Greek alphabet was the Phoenician alphabet which is not quite so). If you're not, prepare to learn. Norris wears her learning lightly, and takes us along on a variety of adventures including some that are, to use a little-used term but an accurate one, ribald.
  
  Norris also does not wear out her welcome or get too cute. She's fun to listen to, and makes Greece (or at least the version available to travelers) come alive. You don't have to familiar with the Greek language or alphabet to follow along, though it helps.
  
  No great issues here, and no universal wisdom dispensed, thank goodness. Just an enjoyable few hours with a flexible and well-stocked mind who succeeds in drawing us into her interests.
• I was eagerly waiting for Mary Norris' book on "all things Greek," being a lover of all things Greek myself and always on the lookout for memoirs about the country. The memoir starts out by explaining how Norris developed an interest in studying the Greek language and the support she received from her employers at the New Yorker, and then dives into the Greek language (ancient and modern), the alphabet, mythology, and actually traveling in Greece. Interspersed without are some glimpses into Norris' family and personal life, combined with witty remarks.
  
  I think the reader will be best served going into this if they expect the format to be like a friend conveying their experiences to them, rather than a structured, very descriptive memoir. That's not to say that the memoir is unstructured, but it's more free-flowing than some others. Additionally, the memoir really does focus on a lot of things Greek - some chapters focus on the language and learning it, some focus on Greek history and mythology, and then portions of it focus on traveling through Greece. While Norris does a great job of touching on all of these areas and providing details around them, the memoir really isn't a deep dive into any of these areas. To do that would have made for a much longer book.
  
  The one thing I do wish there were more of in the memoir are the experiences the author had while traveling throughout Greece. The ones she does have are amazing and did make me feel like I was back in Greece. She also has some hilarious experiences in the country that I loved reading about (no spoilers here, but the scene at the beach at the end of the book is really funny). It could also be hard to track when she was in Greece and for what purpose.
  
  Overall, recommended. Norris has a great style of writing that makes you feel like she's a friend.