Greek to Me

February 1, 2019
The New Yorker's acclaimed "Comma Queen" explores her captivation with all things Greek.Norris (Between You & Me, 2015), whose first book recounted her career in the New Yorker's copy department, offers an exuberant memoir of her transformation from a sheltered schoolgirl in Ohio to a passionate Hellenophile. Thwarted by her father from learning Latin--"Was Dad against education for women? Yes"--the author revived her fascination for dead languages after seeing Time Bandits, part of which was set in ancient Greece. Since the New Yorker generously paid tuition for classes that had some bearing on an employee's work--as a copy editor, knowing Greek could be helpful--Norris enrolled in modern Greek and ancient Greek courses at NYU, Barnard, and Columbia. The Greek alphabet enthralled her. It was adapted radically, she discovered, from the Phoenician alphabet into "a tool for the preservation of memory, for recording history and making art." Delving into etymology, Norris makes a case for the enduring vitality of Greek by revealing its widespread roots in English. Ancient Greek, she asserts, "is far from dead." As she painstakingly immersed herself in learning the language, the author took her first trip to Greece, where she "shot around the Aegean like a pinball," making brief stops in Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, Samos, Chios, and Lesbos. As a solo traveler, she found herself the object of much male attention. "Dining alone in restaurants," she reports, "I was a tourist attraction unto myself." That trip incited her desire to return--she recounts subsequent journeys in lyrical detail--as well as to tackle Greek classics: "I wished there were some way I could be Greek or at least pass as Greek, just by saturating myself in Greekness." She devoured books by Lawrence Durrell and, especially, Patrick Leigh Fermor, two renowned philhellenes, and she steeped herself in heroes, myths, and, gleefully, goddesses. Mythology, she writes, gave her myriad models for women's roles beyond "virgin, bride, and mother," choices that seemed so constricting to her as she grew up.A delightful celebration of a consuming passion.

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March 1, 2019

In her latest work, Comma Queen Norris (Between You and Me) sings an ode to Greece in her quest to experience all things Greek--from the language and culture to the history and people--paying tribute to the gods along the way. Crediting her father for forbidding her to learn Latin as a child, Norris describes the compulsion that led her to study Greek as an adult, funding her passion through her copy editing work at The New Yorker, and testing her skill through travel. Norris's journey starts with language, from A to Ω, detailing the history of written Greek, from the birth of the alphabet to the evolution of spacing. Becoming immersed in the language, Norris consumes every bit of Greek she can get, from singing in a chorus to skinny dipping off a beach in the southern Peloponnese region. VERDICT Norris's experience is one few can match, making this a lively read. However, the author dives deep into the details, which may be distracting for some readers. Overall, this is a good choice for anyone who enjoys travel memoirs.--Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib., Miami

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