Talk to the Hand by Lynne TrussRead: 13-22 May 2010
Pages: 240
The full title is "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door" and is what attracted me to this book in the first place.
The back cover says: "Talk to the Hand is not a book about manners or etiquette. It is about the rudeness of the modern world, and the sense of outrage that infects us every day as we discover that other people are - generally speaking - crass, selfish and inconsiderate.
In her follow-up to Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss asks why rudeness is a universal flashpoint in our increasingly alienated society, and examines specific sources of affront. What ever happened to 'please' and 'thank you'? Why does the customer have to do all the work? Why do people behave in public as id they are in private? How much swearing do we have to put up with? Whatever happened to the idea of public-spiritedness?"
Like many other people, I loved Eats, Shoots & Leaves and naturally had high hopes of this book, not only because the previous book was both funny and educational, but also because I think people are becoming more rude than I would like.
Sadly, this book was neither funny nor particularly interesting. Truss does make some valid points, but more often than not I find myself strongly disagreeing with her (especially concerning the Internet and DIY services). I don't know if this has something to do with me being 30 years younger than her or the fact that I'm not British, but a lot of the behaviour she sees as rude, I don't think twice about.
I also felt there were a lot of unnecessary references to Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which made me feel like what Truss really wanted to say was, "Buy my other book in which I rant about grammar instead of rudeness" (which is what I recommend you do).
My rating: 2
3 comments:
This would catch me too. Thanks for the review and for visiting my blog :)
Thanks for the review, I loved Eats, Shoots and Leaves so I was excited when I saw Truss had a new book out, but I guess I won't rush out to read this one.
Thanks for visiting my review! Haha, I just had to come and read yours! I also thought the British aspect may have played into why I didn't like the book initially, but nah...all around it just wasn't great! She DID make lots of references to Eats, Shoots & Leaves. It reminded me a lot of John C Maxwell and his leadership books - he continues to promote his previous work in each new book. Becomes quite annoying!
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