Rebel with a Clause
Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"A fresh and democratic take on language by a gifted teacher." —Mary Norris
"[Jovin] never hectors, never finger-points; she enlightens and illuminates. This is lovely work." —Benjamin Dreyer
An unconventional guide to the English language drawn from the cross-country adventures of an itinerant grammarian.
When Ellen Jovin first walked outside her Manhattan apartment building and set up a folding table with a GRAMMAR TABLE sign, it took about thirty seconds to get her first visitor. Everyone had a question for her. Grammar Table was such a hit—attracting the attention of the New York Times, NPR, and CBS Evening News—that Jovin soon took it on the road, traveling across the US to answer questions from writers, lawyers, editors, businesspeople, students, bickering couples, and anyone else who uses words in this world.
In Rebel with a Clause, Jovin tackles what is most on people’s minds, grammatically speaking—from the Oxford comma to the places prepositions can go, the likely lifespan of whom, semicolonphobia, and more.
Punctuated with linguistic debates from tiny towns to our largest cities, this grammar romp will delight anyone wishing to polish their prose or revel in our age-old, universal fascination with language.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jovin (English at Work), cofounder of a communication training firm, documents in this zippy account her trip across America with a pop-up grammar advice table. In 2018, she set up shop in Manhattan's Verdi Square answering "grammar questions from passersby." Her endeavor was a success, and soon she took the show on the road across 47 states. Whether she's discussing Oxford commas ("a national obsession, but... surely not a global one") or contractions (evading them can sound robotic), Jovin uses a combination of intuition and established guidelines to demonstrate that there's almost always more than one correct answer to questions of communication. Along the way, she shares funny anecdotes about the interactions at her booth and how it functioned as an outlet for individuals to passionately express their points of view: "The semicolon inspires an array of emotional and intellectual responses: curiosity, anxiety, indifference, affection, and disdain," for example. Jovin's emphasis is always on fun—chapters have silly titles ("Semicolonphobia!" and "Whom Ya Gonna Call?"), and stick-figure drawings illustrate the concepts. The result reads less like a how-to guide and more like a usage-centered memoir. Fellow language lovers will enjoy the ride.
