Product Description

Sticklers, unite! In the spirit of her three-million-copies sold, #1 New York Times bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the queen of zero tolerance takes on the sorry state of modern manners.

"Talk to the hand, 'cause the face ain't listening," the saying goes. When did the world stop wanting to hear? When did society stop valuing basic courtesy and respect? It's a topic that has been simmering for years, and Lynne Truss says it's now reached the boiling point. Taking on the boorish behavior that for some has become a point of pride, Talk to the Hand is a rallying cry for civility.

When did "please" and "thank you" become passé? When you call a "customer service" number, why does the burden of deciphering the automatic switchboard fall to you (and where are the real people, when you, the customer, need service)? Why do people behave as if public spaces are their own chip-strewn living rooms? Perhaps most importantly, how has it come to be that we are not allowed to object? Call someone out on rude or disrespectful behavior and you're likely to get an "Eff off" or worse. In a recent U.S. survey, 79 percent of adults said that lack of courtesy was a serious problem. For all of those fed up with anti-social behavior and suffering in silence, realize that you are the majority! Talk to the Hand is a colorful call to arms-from the wittiest defender of the civilized world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #138347 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

Amazon.com Review

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Lynne Truss is the pundit of pet peeves. She's taken on the ignorance of basic grammar with Eats, Shoots & Leaves, now she bravely rallies against the abysmal state of manners. And while she uses the Jerry Springer-esque phrase of 'talk to the hand' as her title, it's obvious she'd like to have snarkily dubbed it "Learn Some Effing Manners People!"--only she's too polite to do so. (It should be noted that while she's shocked by 6-year-olds using the f -word, she's hopeful that it's so overused that it'll soon sink into obsolescence.) To hammer across her points on politesse, Truss pulls quotations from an astonishing range of sources. Sociologist Erving Goffman is a favorite, but the Simpsons (of cartoon fame, not Jessica & Ashlee), Evelyn Waugh, and W.B. Yeats are also tapped. What her rant boils down to though is unsurprising: modern communication is at the root of rude behavior. Mobile phones and iPods have left us existing in our own little "bubble worlds," she says. "It used to be just CIA agents with earpieces…who regarded all the little people as irrelevant scum. Now it's nearly everybody." These self-produced bubbles make it easy for rudeness to rule. If someone forgets to hold a door or say "Thank you," it's because, Truss says, they're zoned out in their personal space, and will likely be offended if their lack of manners is pointed out. (The ruder the person, she says, the more easily offended.) Truss certainly earns many chuckles throughout her somewhat rambling musings, but her concern about society's decline is serious. To that end, she offers the words of Willy Loman's wife in Arthur Miller's most famous play on modern-day morality (and we all remember what happens in its last act): "Attention must be paid."--Erica Jorgensen

A Note from Lynne Truss

Dear Amazon customer and fellow stickler,

There’s an odd thing I’m finding about my new book, Talk to the Hand. The moment I start describing it to people ("Basically, it’s about the rudeness of everyday life – "), they jump straight in with stories about all the rudeness they’ve encountered in the past ten years. When I was trying to tell people about punctuation, engaging their attention was a victory. Well, not this time. "And another thing!" they say, banging the table. "What about cell phones? What about cold callers?" I make a feeble stab at outlining my six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door, also my theory of the alienation of modern life, which is that fundamentally we expect to be met half-way in our dealings with strangers and are continually shocked that this courtesy no longer pertains – but who am I kidding? I never get further than the first good reason (the decline of "please", "thank you", and "excuse me") because people are agreeing so vehemently, and I’m saying "Absolutely" and "You’re right" and "Actually, some of this is in the book." The thing is: there is nothing original in being against rudeness. Everyone is against rudeness. In fact, very, very rude people object to it strongly. But why does it matter to us so much? Are we so scared of other people? Why do we spend so much of our time saying, "Oh, that’s so RUDE"? All I can say is, you could find out from reading the book! But if you'd rather not, best wishes to all sticklers.

Your special pal,

Lynne Truss

The Lynne Truss Collection

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: 2006 Calendar

Making the Cat Laugh

From Publishers Weekly
This isn't a book about good manners, per se. Instead, the British author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves sets out "to mourn... the apparent collapse of civility in all areas of our dealing with strangers; then to locate a tiny flame of hope in the rubble." It's a plea to show some consideration to others, especially in certain areas: (1) "Was That So Hard to Say?" ("thank you"); (2) "Why am I the One Doing This?" (e.g., punching doggedly through the automated switchboard); (3) "My Bubble, My Rules" (forcing others to listen to a private conversation on a mobile phone); (4) "The Universal Eff-Off Reflex" (outrage when antisocial behavior is pointed out); (5) "Booing the Judges" (active disrespect for the umpire, the older person, anyone in authority); and (6) "Someone Else Will Clean It Up" (e.g., rubbish tossed out the car window). Truss expounds on these themes with fine ire, mordant humor and many examples, but it must be said that the result is not so much a book as a heavily padded magazine article. Not that this will bother the many book buyers who will tuck it lovingly into the Christmas stockings of their somewhat discomfited nearest and dearest.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Behind Truss's larky manner, she's a fiery vigilante. -- Time

If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic I'd nominate her for sainthood. -- Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis

Ms. Truss's witty analysis and fussbudget tactics [are] contagious. -- The New York Times

Truss is an entertaining well-read scold in a culture that could use more scolding. -- USA Today

You'll find her outrage supremely vindicating. -- Village Voice

[Truss is] a reformer with the soul of a stand-up comedian. -- Boston Sunday Globe

Customer Reviews

So bad it's rude....
Upon reading this book I can only conclude that the publishers persuaded (forced)Truss to write another book as any rubbish she churned out would ride sweetly on the back of Eats, Shoots and Leaves. The very concept of the book has literally been done to death and it has definitely been done a great deal more entertainingly.

Her choice of topics used for examples frankly beggars belief. Mobile phones on trains, call centre automated answering systems, discourteous drivers and so on, oh hillarious, I never thought of those!!! - not only does she use these mind numbingly dull themes, totally void of any originality, but she uses them over and over and over again.

She has also invested an inordinate amount of text space promoting her previous success, there is barely a paragraph that doesn't remind you how jolly clever she was writing her best seller.

The most irritating thing about this book is that most of the "rude" things she describes are not even vaguely rude; instead they are just annoying.... Actually one thing is more irritating and that is the fact that she will no doubt make a huge wad of cash from this crap. Basically the book is really, really weak. She is incredibly fortunate to have some influential chums who wanted this book to succeed.

If a stand up comic came up with even a snippet of this they would be immediately booed off stage.

Not funny, not clever.

Ms. Truss is the rudest one of all
The Utter Bloody Rudest thing of all in this book is Ms. Truss and her ignorant bigotry on gluten intolerance, i.e. celiac disease. Guess what, Ms. Truss? 3 million Americans, and a little over 1% of Britons are genetically gluten-intolerant (and probably similar percentages for the rest of the world), and this life-damaging disease KILLS an unknown number of people each year. So you don't like dealing with gluten intolerance? We don't either, but we don't have a choice. Get over yourself, and quit slinging gratuitous insults at people dealing with serious medical issues.

Dangerously Uninformed
Congratulations Ms. Truss on managing to offend 1-3% of the population in only the first five pages of a book condemning bad manners! For SHAME!

Are you offended that airlines and schools no longer serve peanuts due to the prevalence of peanut allergies? Or that diabetics sometimes must eat in meetings? Or that handicap spaces often take up prime positions in parking lots? Why is it acceptable to poke fun and cry offense from someone else's medical disability?

A gluten-free diet due to gluten intolerance is NOT an option. It is a medical prescription that is mandatory FOR LIFE. It is necessary for survival, even if it means playing 20 questions at the periodic unavoidable restaurant dinner, standing for HOURS in a grocery store reading product labels, insisting on accurate ingredient information from food, drug, and cosmetic manufacturers, preparing almost every meal you eat yourself, and in short ensuring your survival in a toxic (and often harshly unforgiving) world. I'd like to see you try this without ever offending anyone!

Usually we suffer in silence. The price of not successfully maintaining our gluten-free diet is health issues building gradually from digestive problems to various incurable conditions (such as cancer, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, and overall systemic failure). Perhaps you would feel less "inconvenienced" if we immediately dropped dead from exposure like those with peanut allergies sometimes do. Maybe then you and others like you would recognize the severity of our condition.

We "inconvenience" others as little as possible, and then only when necessary. The only other alternative for the millions of us afflicted with this disorder is to lock ourselves into our homes...to die.