Review: Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss

I am not a big non-fiction reader. I happened to come across this book on my friend Jayanth's bookshelf and I just starting browsing through it. It caught my interest right away.

I do understand the importance of correct punctuation and value it deeply in my reading. However, I wouldn't call myself a "stickler" (The author is a "stickler!" There is a picture of her adding the required apostrophe to a poster of  the movie Two Weeks Notice, on the back, inside cover of the book). At the same time, I felt compelled to read this book.

How can a book on punctuation be fun? It can be informative, instructive, but fun? This book with the tag-line "The Zero-Tolerance Approach to Punctuation," was actually a fun read! It is amazing that a mundane (but important) topic like punctuation can become such an interesting read.

Besides the history and evolution of various punctuation marks, the differences between British and American punctuation styles, and the subtleties of the usage of punctuation marks, what I loved about this book was the author's style of writing.


Witty and sarcastic, providing hilarious examples as to how punctuation can change the entire meaning of a piece of writing, Lynne Truss's passion for the subject shines through. She explains that despite the rules, punctuation, much like writing itself, can be subjective, and has room for creativity. She renders what could have been a boring, dreary read, into a comic, creative and illuminating journey delving on the importance of correct punctuation and its frequent misuses.

Review: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Summary: Julia and Valentina Pool are twenty-real old twins, living in America, with no real interest in education or finding jobs. One day, they receive a letter informing them that they have inherited their aunt Elspeth has died of cancer, leaving to them her apartment in London. There are two conditions. They must live in it for one year before they sell it and that their parents can never enter the apartment. Elspeth was their Mother Eldie's estranged twin sister.
 They move to Elspeth's apartment, which borders Highgate Cemetery, where Karl Marx, Christina Rossetti and George Eliot are buried. In the apartment building, they meet Martin, who has an obsessive compulsive disorder, Robert, who was Elspeth's lover, and also the ghost of their aunt who still inhabits the apartment.

Review: I had mixed feelings about this book. There were parts of it that were enchanting, such as the description of Highgate Cemetery that emerges almost as an additional character. I also liked reading about the relationship between Martin and Marjake. But overall I can't say that I really enjoyed reading the book, despite the subtly of the emotional experience that it provides.

The whole twin relationship and the seeming loss of identity and the anxiety that characterized the Valentina-Julia relationship (and was suggested in the Elspeth-Edie relationship) seemed a bit clichéd to me. The aimlessness of the twins' lives also bothered me. All the characters were flawed and also quite quirky. I guess they did live next to a cemetery, but it made them less believeable.

The only relationship that I was sympathetic to was the Martin-Marjake relationship. Despite Matin's obsessiveness, he evoked the most empathy. Obsession becomes a recurring theme in the novel. There is the oppressive closeness of the twin sisters, Robert and Elspeth's frantic communication after her death, and his own obsession with the cemetery, so that his thesis is thousands of pages.

The book has dark undertones which become more vivid as it progresses. It is hard to talk about a lot of the ideas, without spoiling it for people who haven't read it. It is like a Victorian ghost story set in Contemporary times. I personally prefer the old school Gothic writing. A ghost writing "LOL" on an Ouija board is really not palatable for me.

It is a gripping book though, that is hard to put down. The story is developed nicely and keeps one engaged. One really gets a sense of the personalities of each of the characters. (Though for me, getting to know them really made me dislike a lot of them!) I would recommend it just for the description of Churchgate, the subtlety of the text and the haunting quality that seeps through the book. But I had been wanting to read it for a long time and was quite disappointed.