pagesofjulia

This one is a surprisingly quick and easy read, considering that it undertakes the history of a much-debated punctuation mark. Early on it made me giggle and brought me great joy. Later, it took me into Moby-Dick and Henry James, which I did not enjoy. At over 60 pages, the Melville & James chapter (“Semicolon Savants”) was by far the longest in the book, and occurred late in it, so it disproportionately colors the impression I walk away with, and not for the best. But earlier chapters on semicolons in legal arguments and the ever-changing nature of language rules, and pithier (than Melville) examples of semicolons as style (Twain, Irvine Welsh, Raymond Chandler, Rebecca Solnit!), made me very happy. Perhaps I felt that the Melville and James examples misportray the semicolon; perhaps it’s merely an expression of my preferences. I very much missed a discussion of the semicolon’s present symbolism in mental health awareness movements and tattoos, since I feel like that usage is cleverly figurative (even if it misconstrues my own semicolon tattoo, which is actually about punctuation). But maybe that aspect is too of-the-moment and has not yet stood the test of time.

I do love that there are books about this.

And I enjoyed where the book wraps up. Watson has spent its length periodically referring to her own movement from (more or less) grammar nerd and prescriptivist to descriptivist admirer of language and style in their diversity. She finishes by reminding us not to get too caught up in the rules. I appreciate this message very much, and I agree with it, although it’s hard to find where to fall as an English teacher of reluctant students. I many times found myself wishing I could convince them all to read this book, which feels like endorsement enough.

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: grammar, history, nonfiction, writing/craft |