Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen

Mary Norris, longtime copy editor, columnist, and author at the New Yorker (The Comma Queen) takes a deep dive into Greece and Greek, exploring them through language and etymology, mythology and culture, geography and world and personal history. The reader is swept along as she discusses the origin of the alphabet, adapted from the Phoenician, the richness of the ancient language and the endless potential translations even of the simplified "grey-eyed goddess" epithet given to Athena by Homer. I think the technical term for her linguistic discourse is "geeking out," and I absolutely love this stuff (I was a linguistics major in college and am also a philhellene). Other reviewers found this tedious, which is fair, I suppose. I struggled show more more with her personal history and revelations of psychoanalysis. It doesn't get any better than the discussions of mythology, and there just aren't enough words to describe the sheer beauty of Greece. There's even a chapter on Cyprus, birthplace of Aphrodite. Perhaps because I've lived there and traveled there so many times that I am well acquainted with the less beautiful parts of the island nation, I began this chapter with surprise and skepticism - surely Greece is more beautiful? But her descriptions of Cyprus - and I have been everywhere she describes multiple times - are so lovely and so spot-on they made me weep and want to return and appreciate them anew. Ms. Norris is also brutally honest about her misadventures with the modern language, something every traveler who learns some of the local language and then stumbles to use it can relate to. Having made many of these same mistakes myself, I laughed frequently. My one reservation is that, while we share a love of Greek, of Greece and Cyprus, and especially of the history and astonishing contributions to western culture, she does not seem to have a love for Greek people, in my opinion the very best part of a long list of wonderfuls. I have never found Greeks and Greek Cypriots to be anything but warm, generous, and very proud of their reputation for philoxenia - love for the foreigner. I recognize that everyone has different interactions and traveling experiences, however, and I also recognize that I have never traveled in Greece or Cyprus without my husband, which makes a big difference - especially for a woman traveling alone!

The audiobook was narrated by the author, which can be a mixed bag. While not an actor, this book needs someone who can pronounce Greek, and also can mispronounce it, as one who has recently learned. Recommended for anyone who enjoys Greek mythology, western history, and Greece. show less

Mary Norris has written a fine paean to her love of the Greek language, and the whole experience of Greece, both physical and mental. The prose is what one would expect of a "New Yorker" copy editor. That is to say (I, know Mary, that is a "Filler" phrase) It is precise and grammatically perfect. Into the bargain, the prose is the tool of a fine eye, and a ebullient humour on many topics. Read this book, and even, buy it! You will learn a good deal about the Greek language, and the English language, and writers in English about Greece, as well as even about the classical writers...This is a book filled with Greek Sunshine!

This is a lovely, readable memoir of the love of language and place. Mary Norris studies Greek, and spends time in Greece, seeking and using the languages (classical and modern) as she explores the places described in myth and legend. I picked up this book because my daughter has a similar love of this language and this place, and has spent the first part of her academic journey immersed in them. I plan to give this to her as a graduation gift, and I hope she finds a kindred spirit in these charming pages.

Mary Norris has managed to combine bits about her life and literary career and bits about Greece and its language old and new in an informed undemanding manner. Included are many examples of Greek embedded in English and the history of how that came to be. Love of words is central to the whole of this rewarding story.

Quotes: Page 107) “One reason that Hamilton's work was so popular is that she made an end run around academia. Classicists cannot help being snobs: once you have read something in Greek, a translation is a pale imitation, almost a sacrilege. They would not themselves value the work of Edith Hamilton. Stephen Fry, Rick Riordan --- or even Robert Graves, though his encyclopedic scheme has the earmarks of scholarship. Yet show more these writers with the common touch are introducing mythology to people who may fall in love with it and go on to read Hesoid in Greek or Ovid in Latin.”

(page 121) “Professor Zeitlin's class had woken me to the fact I could have other models:be a bitch, be a huntress, be an Amazon, be a maenad, one of the crazed followers of Dionysus. Mythology taught me that I didn't have to limit myself to virgin, bride, and mother --- there were other roles to play. I didn't have to be like my mother and wear a girdle every day of my life. I could let myself live.” show less

Lovely short book about the author’s experiences learning Greek (classical and modern) and her travels in Greece. She’s a great writer so I think I’d be happy to read her grocery list if she decided to publish it. I love her tone of voice, it’s educated and plain-talk all at once, with loads of humor, much of it directed at herself.

A somewhat adorable misfire, almost more personal memoir than paean to Greece. It took me over a year to finish it: Norris seems to spend every other sentence of the book's first half explaining virtually every English word with Greek roots, and being the kind of guy who reads books by copy editors (such as Mary Norris), I know that stuff. When I finally returned to the book, it got better, with less etymology (Gk. etymon, a true thing + logos, word) and more travel reporting from places like Crete, and Eleusis, classical site of the Eleusinian mysteries and now an industrial wasteland of tire centers and factories. Norris is an eccentric guide who presents herself as a species of idiot savant, a working-class escapee from the show more know-nothing Midwest who enjoys the most obscure heights of intellectual pursuit while also admitting huge gaps in general knowledge. This is admirable, but becomes a bit too cute. She'll use the word "autochthonous" in one breath, and in the next, add the phrase "(not the one in Ohio)" to her hundredth mention of Athens, just as a joke.

There are things to learn here, but my patience was tested. Fortunately, the book is small. I would approach the book like a magazine article. Don't work too hard at paying attention. Read quickly, scan over what doesn't interest you, take a few notes for further exploration, and call it good. show less

Delightful piece of fluff concerning the author's love affair with all things Greek: language, buth ancient and modern; etymology and history of same; and her adventures in Greece and its islands. Fast-paced and full of information tidbits.