Book Review: Greek To Me

New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris, AKA the Comma Queen, writes absolutely delightful memoirs. Her boundless curiosity and giddy enthusiasm will sweep you up and into her stories. She’s generous with her insecurities, too; though, in this second memoir, she is more confident and less apologetic.

Greek to Me details the joy that ancient and modern Greek have brought to Norris’s life. The memoir follows her language-learning journey – convincing the New Yorker to pay for her classes at Columbia, performing in plays, reading the myths – as well as her travels through Greece and Cyprus.

Along the way, Norris lets us further into her personal and work lives, recounting family tragedy and the upheaval during Condé Nast’s takeover of the New Yorker.

Greek myths and legends have had a fantastic few years: retellings have been published by Stephen Fry, Madeline Miller, Pat Barker, Emily Wilson and more. If you’re still in the mood for more, Norris’s memoir is not to be missed.

Author: Mary Norris
Publisher: Text Publishing