Writer Series: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

I would never admit this to just anyone, but since I know I am safe in the understanding arms of our family of writers, here it goes.  I suffer from rampant, impartial comma usage.  It is a sickness I have always kind of known I suffered from, but it took a wakeup call for me to really acknowledge the extent of my disease.  My wakeup call arrived when my darling mother-in-law, and finish editor, sweetly, but firmly said she would rather I not put any commas in at all.  My mother-in-law also mentioned something about commas having actual placement rules and not just stuck in whenever I wanted a pause (I find her just too precious for words.  Placement rules.   Can you imagine?).

This embarrassing and rather funny admonishment led me to take an on-line grammar refresher course.  And while I found it very helpful, especially in regard to colons and semicolons, it made me realize I was just at the beginning of my punctuation recovery.  So in a desire to continue my rehabilitation, I have decide to see what pearls of wisdom, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss, had to share.

The book starts off with a lovely forward from Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes.  But his fun and lively forward caused me to instantly be distrustful of the real body of the book being as entertaining.  I felt like I was being lured into a trap by Mr. McCourt’s by playfulness (the image of Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars quite clearly warning me of the imminent danger).  With my defenses down I couldn’t properly prepare for 200 pages of mind numbing – though admittedly important – tedium.   I mean, really people, this book is about punctuation.  But I was wrong to doubt (I guess this time Admiral Ackbar sounded the alarm needlessly), and I am a big enough person to admit it.   

Ms. Truss’s colorful personality sparkles with the brilliance of a diamond through her impassioned writing; giving life to punctuation.  Well-written and interesting with lovely bits of history woven in, Truss takes us back to the basics without being boring.  She peppers her writing with historical anecdotes, British humor, and her unique twists making me giggle in a rather undignified way.  (If you do not care for British humor, this book may be a bit more challenging to you).  She even dips into the fascinating topic of punctuation theory – which I found a lot more fun than trying to sort out the “rules” – and it did enlighten me to the power of some of our lesser-used punctuation tools.

On the down side, the chapters felt a bit long - which I noticed because I kept checking on how many pages I had left till I could take a break.  The long chapters definitely contributed to my fatigue factor.  I wish that they were broken into smaller chunks, while keeping the same content, to allow for more rest time for my poor, overtaxed brain. Also, on occasion I did get a little lost and confused when we moved into the dark and treacherous waters of opinion.  Like I said, proper punctuation does not come naturally to me - though I am trying to challenge myself to improve – so I can barely handle the basics, let alone people’s subjective views. 

Even with my complaints, I have to say the good I gained from this book far outweighs my issues.  Over my reading of Eats, Shoots and Leaves I have come to think of Lynne Truss as my punctuation fairy godmother.  I can just imagine her whispering punctuation corrections in my ear, usually accompanied by some very vivid word pictures.  In fact her passion, closely linked to fanatic militarism, made me wonder if she was an escaped character from Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next Series.  She seemed like the sort of person Jasper Fforde would delight in creating.  In any case I would relish a chance to have drinks with her, just so I could hear her eloquent rants against the indifference of society toward punctuation, which, of course, is directly related to bringing about the coming apocalypse.

Ms. Truss cunning witticism seems to have come about through natural talent and good training.  She graduated with a BA Honors (first class) in English Language and Literature from University College London.  Ms. Truss has spent time in the trenches as a literary editor, writer, and journalist.  She also played host to a popular radio broadcast in Britain called Cutting a Dash and wrote a sports column for four years.  Her book credits include Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door; Get Her Off the Pitch! How sport took over my life; The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage without Apostrophes! Her awards include the Morley Medal, Rosa Morrison Scholarship and George Smith Prize (apparently her status as a punctuation fairy godmother has yet to be universally acknowledged).  Lynne Truss currently works as a book reviewer for the Sunday Times of London and continues to do pieces for the radio on BBC Radio 4.  I am impressed, though I have to say she makes me feel a little lazy.

I thoroughly enjoyed Eats, Shoots, and Leaves - and I learned lots of new things.  Though, admittedly, the magical light of clarity didn’t quite shine brightly enough to cure my sickness.  But to be completely fair I am rather inclined to place most of the blame on myself and not my punctuation fairy godmother: Lynne Truss is a treasure.  And I imagine that if you give her a chance – with you being so clever - Lynne Truss, should be able to work some magic on your writing too.