The Grammarians

Author(s): Cathleen Schine

Novel | Humour & Satire | New York

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.

Review:


Schine's warmth and wisdom about how families work and don't work are as reliable as her wry humor, and we often get both together . . . This impossibly endearing and clever novel sets off a depth charge of emotion and meaning. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)


Schine's sparkling latest [is] both a fizzy exploration of the difficulties of separating from one's closest ally and a quirky meditation on the limits of language for understanding the world. -- Publishers Weekly


Captivating . . . written with the tender precision and clarity of a painting by Vermeer . . . [a] wry and elegant novel. --Ann Levin, Associated Press


A delightful new novel . . . Schine takes her readers on deep philosophical dives but resurfaces with craft and humor; her tone is amused and amusing. --Susan Dominus, The New York Times Book Review


"The mother of the beguilingly unusual twins whose lives unfold in this sublime comic novel could not adore them more than I do. A singular delight for anyone who has ever marveled at the quirks and beauties and frustrations of English grammar, and a fascinating portrait of the passions and dramas of fierce familial love." --Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend


This tale of twins who elbow each other out of the way in the giant womb of the world is smart, buoyant and bookish -- in the best sense of the word. --Heller McAlpin, NPR


Cathleen Schine's new novel, The Grammarians, is a rich study of the factions that attempt to define how language should be used.--Lauren Leibowitz, The New Yorker


"This is an utterly charming book, and yet more than that. It is a book of real people and their relationship--both to language and to each other. Fresh as a white sheet of paper, it is clean and lovely; an absolutely delightful read." --Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer Prize-winning author


 


 


 


 


Author Biography: Cathleen Schine is the author of They May Not Mean to, But They Do; The Three Weissmanns of Westport; and The Love Letter, among other novels. She has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Times Book Review. She lives in Los Angeles.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780374280116
  • : Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  • : Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  • : 0.3
  • : June 2019
  • : ---length:- '20.8'width:- '13.5'units:- Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Cathleen Schine
  • : Hardback
  • : 1909
  • : English
  • : 813.6
  • : 272