Talk to the Hand [Paperback]

Lynne Truss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2006

Sticklers unite! The Queen of Zero Tolerance takes on the sorry state of modern manners, in the spirit of her three million copy worldwide bestseller, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves". 'Talk to the hand cause the face ain't listening', the saying goes. When did the world get to be so rude? When did society become so inconsiderate? It's a topic that has been simmering for years, and Lynne Truss says that it has now reached boiling point. Taking on the boorish behaviour that has become a point of pride for some, "Talk to the Hand" is a rallying cry for courtesy. Like "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", "Talk to the Hand" is a spirited conversation, not a stuffy guidebook. It is not about forks, for a start. Why hasn't your nephew ever thanked you for that perfect Christmas present? What makes your builder think he can treat you like dirt in your own home? When you phone a utility with a complaint (and have negotiated the switchboard), why can't you ever speak to a person who is authorised to apologise? What accounts for the appalling treatment you receive in shops? Most important, what will it take to roll back a culture that applauds rudeness and finds it so amusing? For anyone who's fed up with the brutality inflicted by modern manners (and is naturally too scared to confront the actual yobs), "Talk to the Hand" is a colourful call to arms - from the wittiest defender of the civilised world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"So lively, so witty, so exhilaratingly splenetic" Craig Brown, The Mail on Sunday "Highly perceptive, passionately argued and extremely funny...a brilliantly nailed truth about contemporary life" Sunday Telegraph "Trademark Truss...(very) readable, (very) funny, (very) engaging" Stephen Bayley, Observer"

About the Author

Lynne Truss is the author of the number one bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves. It has sold over three million copies worldwide and won the British book of the Year award in 2004. She has also written four comic books (published by Profile). She lives in Brighton.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Profile Books; New Ed edition (October 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861979797
• ISBN-13: 978-1861979797
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 0.7 x 7.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,959,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truss Comes Back Fighting the Extinction of Etiquette, March 19, 2008

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt The Door (Paperback)

Embittered albeit bemused finger-wagging appears to be author Lynne Truss' specialty, and I have to say I find her newest little tome on the global lack of respect and good manners even more cutting than her bad grammar colonic, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Both books reflect her British sense of civility with lacerating wit and shrewd observation, but this one feels more like a rant than a how-to manual on how to improve upon such social breeches. However, she does a clear-eyed job in analyzing the origins of such barbaric behavior.

In her previous book, Truss saw the decline of punctuation as indicative of the increasing spread of illiteracy. Here she suggests that the collapse of manners is the tip of what she calls a "social immorality iceberg", i.e., a decreasing competency in building community and using manners as a sign of mutual respect. In fact, there will definitely many who view her definition of what used to be considered basic good manners as elitist. For example, she may be a member of a shrinking populace who bristle when there is the absence of a simple "Thank you," and "You're welcome" when a door is held open. I happen to be in her camp, so I am quite amenable to her observations. Inevitably, there will be the impolite thinkers who demand quantitative data to back up her arguments. However, because so little data is available on long-term trends, Truss doesn't bother with statistics, and instead devotes six short chapters to examples of how behavior that was unthinkable a generation ago has become normal.

The weakness of the book is that she offers no actionable solutions. Her examples are entertaining but beyond hoping that someone will recognize the problem, she doesn't anticipate that things will improve. In fact, it seems like a missed opportunity to lay out a plan for how people really ought to behave in social situations with tangible steps for her readers (or more appropriately, the rude friends of her readers) to follow. Her reason for this omission is that she doesn't want to be held up to such constant scrutiny which seems like an unnecessary concession. Yet, Truss's concern for the morality of our everyday interactions is thorough and affecting, and to her credit, she never tries to simplify the subject given its political and moral dimensions. She celebrates intolerance and does attempt to set out a manifesto toward the end of the book. Just like the basis of the rising Labor movement in her homeland, Truss believes that manners are connected to the common good, and I have to agree that acts of kindness ennoble the world in which we live.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Six good things to complain about, October 10, 2007

By 

C. Marken (Woodland, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt The Door (Paperback)

After reading the author's first book, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," I had very high hopes for another smash hit. I was a bit disappointed since this book doesn't address how to improve our interaction with others, but rather, spends a great deal of time pointing out all that's wrong with society, and the main reasons the author would rather stay home and bolt the door. Although I agree with her criticisms, the wonderful wit and humor present in the first book is not found in this one. Looking for a great read with helpful information to improve yourselt, pick up the auther's first book, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves."

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Is Exploitation a Form of Rudeness?, October 29, 2006

By 

Bozo MacGinty "Bozo MacGinty" (New York NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt The Door (Paperback)

The dust jacket tells it all. Ms. Truss is a radio host and a newspaper columnist and this little book appears to be a quickly collected concoction of bits from her radio and journalistic lives designed to capitalize on Eats, Shoots and Leaves. The reader is predisposed to agree with the premise, but the contents are slap-dash and random. One can almost hear the radio host stream-of consciousness wanderings when reading this.

Was Ms. Truss rude to pass this off on her public?