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An enchanting, comic love letter to sibling rivalry and the English language. From the author compared to Nora Ephron and Nancy Mitford, not to mention Jane Austen, comes a new novel celebrating the beauty, mischief, and occasional treachery of language. /> The Grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret "twin" tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but this love, which has always bound them together, begins instead to push them apart. Daphne, copy editor and grammar columnist, devotes herself to preserving the dignity and elegance of Standard English. Laurel, who gives up teaching kindergarten to write poetry, is drawn, instead, to the polymorphous, chameleon nature of the written and spoken word. Their fraying twinship finally shreds completely when the sisters go to war, absurdly but passionately, over custody of their most prized family heirloom: Merriam Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition. Cathleen Schine has written a playful and joyful celebration of the interplay of language and life. A dazzling comedy of sisterly and linguistic manners, a revelation of the delights and stresses of intimacy, The Grammarians is the work of one of our great comic novelists at her very best.
Read for my book club. I love words and took courses in linguistics in college. Yet, this book fell flat. It started out ok with a good premise and some interesting scenarios such as swapping jobs (admittedly dangerous since it's an oft-used ruse in movies). But the characters were fixated on things or in ways that did not keep my interest. Even the "barely a dilemma" of the dictionary that led to the ending was not particularly creative or enjoyable.
Reading this book felt like the equivalent of eating raw tofu. Ultimately, it was uninspired. I did not enjoy the tension. Instead it was bland and tiresome. I'm guessing the author thought her dialogues were witty banter. They were not. ( )
Were there ever a book written for the pedant in me, this would be it. The Grammarians is the story of twins, Laurel and Daphne, and their love affair with language. It was the Second Edition Webster's Dictionary which kindled the flames of their lifelong romance with words and I, too, can remember being just as enthralled with my own huge (to me) dictionary with its delicate, opaque, tissue-thin pages and ( )
I did not finish this book, but I read about 70 pages before giving up. What I read lacked momentum. I didn't find any characters interesting or likeable and in the pages I read, they also didn't really do anything. I kept thinking, "OK, these are quirky twins. Got it. Their uncle doesn't like them. Got it. Surely this next page will include some sort of action in their lives. No? Ugh." My to-read pile is too tall to slog through something I'm not into, so this one unfortunately went back to the library unfinished by me. ( )
An enchanting, comic love letter to sibling rivalry and the English language. From the author compared to Nora Ephron and Nancy Mitford, not to mention Jane Austen, comes a new novel celebrating the beauty, mischief, and occasional treachery of language. The Grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret "twin" tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but this love, which has always bound them together, begins instead to push them apart. Daphne, copy editor and grammar columnist, devotes herself to preserving the dignity and elegance of Standard English. Laurel, who gives up teaching kindergarten to write poetry, is drawn, instead, to the polymorphous, chameleon nature of the written and spoken word. Their fraying twinship finally shreds completely when the sisters go to war, absurdly but passionately, over custody of their most prized family heirloom: Merriam Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition. Cathleen Schine has written a playful and joyful celebration of the interplay of language and life. A dazzling comedy of sisterly and linguistic manners, a revelation of the delights and stresses of intimacy, The Grammarians is the work of one of our great comic novelists at her very best.
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Reading this book felt like the equivalent of eating raw tofu. Ultimately, it was uninspired. I did not enjoy the tension. Instead it was bland and tiresome. I'm guessing the author thought her dialogues were witty banter. They were not.
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