(Reviewed by JD Jung)
For those of you who are confused with the inconsistencies and nonsensical idioms and figures of speech in the English language, this book is for you. Gary Sherbell shares his irritation, but in a hilarious way in Damn English.
This self-proclaimed “linguistics commentator” uses six fictional characters to express his frustration: a retired New York City judge, a Los Angeles playwright, a young Miami model, a Liverpool Detective Sargent, a wealthy Hong Kong banker, and a middle-aged sheep-herders wife from Melbourne.
Why are words spelled the way they are? Why can they mean different things? He frames this from the perspective of each of the six people. So you hate grammar? From the use of homonyms, to when you use the singular verses the multiple, to various ways to say the same thing, Sherbell takes a unique spin on all of that. He then brings the grammar controversies into the figure of speech realm. Why the “for” in “For crying out loud” and “For Christ’s sake”. Why is someone “pissed off” and not “pissed on? He goes further into the weird world of idioms. Why would we want to throw the baby out with the bathwater? He also lists a whole list of what phrases have been replaced by “whatever”.
One of my favorite issues is why “left” in English takes on an inferior position to “right”. A left-handed compliment and left leaning political affiliation can have a bad connotation compared to the right. What makes this so amusing is the tangent he then goes into, like with the other points.
He just doesn’t complain, he suggests workable solutions and recommends better ways to express the same feeling with no confusion. This includes creating a new idiom by taking two current idioms and putting them together (like before and after on a popular American game show). Sherbell also offers readers the ability to respond to specific controversies via email. I can’t tell you if it’s a working one though.
If you’re like me, you may have never thought of these issues and really don’t care. However, if you want some laughter in your life during these serious and dire times, Damn English will keep you laughing.