Away With Words

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Utterly unique and movingly memorable, Away With Words is a wonderful story about what happens when we take control of our own narrative, and find ways to communicate across the gaps in language. Clever, brilliantly written, and thought-provoking, it will stay with you.” Sinéad O’Hart, author of The Time Tider

The bond between Jordi and Ryan comes out beautifully. I liked how the same-sex relationship was written without going over the top about the “two dads” factor. It was a realistic depiction.

This makes sense because the whole thing reminded me of FNI, making me sad-nostalgic, and half-tempted to hike up to Brooklyn and compete as Punnsylvania 6-5000 (steal it and die, bitches). The regulars, the joy of doing well, the fear of flopping, the brain freeze in which you forget every pun you know during those 90 seconds: it's all so much like Friday Nite Improvs it hurts. Berkowitz competes and hangs out with these people, trying to understand the allure, get better at puns, and--on at least one amusing occasion--get high and record a podcast. The problem with having a first person perspective for this book was that we read all of Gala's thoughts and apprehensions in English, a language she wasn't fluent in and yet voicing her thoughts so well in. This created a jarring contradiction between what was being said and the language it was being said in. This book focuses on Gala and Natalie searching for the real culprit as Gala comes to terms with the move away from all she knows and loves. Although a mystery genre, Away With Words is a book about acceptance and kindness, inclusion and friendship. It offers the reader the chance to appreciate how Gala feels about a huge life change. Her emotions are further confused by the happiness this move brings to her father and his partner, Ryan. The book explores the complexity of family relationships and examines the ups and downs of class friendships. The ending is unexpected regarding both the mystery and the move. The participants get to know each other because of their frequent interaction. Many of the punsters work as writers for tv shows, movies, or newspapers or comedians. Some newspapers thrive on utilizing puns in their headlines and stories. At the competitions, a category is announced and the contestants have ninety seconds to come up with as many puns as they can. They then present them to live audiences and are judged by the audience’s response. The film credits Borges (presumably Funes the Memorious) and Luria for inspiration. Many aspects of Asano's character (memory excess, profound synesthesia, arranging memories visually along roads, wordplay, struggling with an onslaught of associations, comments about restaurant music and its effect on food taste, the waking-for-school scene) are directly borrowed from Luria's real life case study of Solomon Shereshevskii, The Mind of a Mnemonist.

Author Anna Kemp introduces The Hollow Hills, the sequel to her dark magical tale, Into Goblyn Wood. A tale of two pun competitions, so… the best of times, the wurst of times (because things can get hammy, you see). If that doesn’t completely do your head in, or get on your nerves, you might be able to handle this book. Plus, your lobe of words indicates you have a lot of skull. Or something.

In this story of hope and endurance, we follow a scientist and her team during their search for the elusive 'Giant Arctic Jellyfish'. Fusing a love for travel with a passion for storytelling, Away With Words was brought to life by Siobháin Spear in 2018. Siobháin is the Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder of insydo, a regional lifestyle publisher; she is also a Co-Founder of Brand Ripplr, the region’s largest influencer platform. I am not into poems, so while I appreciated the efforts of the two girls, I couldn’t feel as emotionally moved. Somehow, the writing kept me at a distance. Prolific Press (Anthology): https://prolificpress.com/bookstore/inwood-indiana-c-4/the-pop-machine-p-205.html?zenid=kuqgm0j7ps9frr7sf3k2h6j1u3

Gala has moved from Spain where she easily moved between Catalan and Spanish to northern Scotland where she must navigate through a new life with her Dad and his boyfriend in a small community. Once exuberant she becomes silent; once gregarious she becomes lonely. She befriends Natalie, a classmate whose anxiety has isolated her. Natalie’s selective mutism and Gala’s struggle to communicate in English create a bond for the two girls. What’s beautiful about this world, however, is that words and conversations leave traces. Natalie and Gala start collecting their own and other people’s words to communicate, to reflect and to encourage. And that's mostly because of her wonderful friendship with Natalie. Natalie has selective mutism and knows what it is to not find the right words or to not be able to speak them. They find some common ground, find a way to communicate with each other and start an amazing project. And then they learn that words are nothing but a tool. They can be used for good and for bad. And, most of all, they don't always say what the person speaking them really wants to say. My thanks to Little Tiger Group and NetGalley for the DRC of “Away With Words”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.It has a moment here and there; I am glad the author succeeds but didn’t truly find anything especially exciting in their travails. Even the initial competitions don’t exactly generate a lot of heat and boils down to being told a joke that somebody else thought was rather bloody brilliant. Let's be brutally honest here: the book gets the fifth star simply because the reviewer has more bias than the average Simplicity sewing pattern. When I heard this book existed, my first thought was, "There are PUN competitions? Where the hell has this BEEN all my life?" The concept of being able to see other people's words was really interesting as well as collecting and preserving those words. I also really like how Gala and Natalie used other people's words both struggling with English and speaking themselves respectively. Through the words Gala manages to develop her English and become more confident while Natalie uses them to express herself. Natalie struggles with selective mutism through the book which I felt was written well and in a way that was easy to understand and relate to. Here's the thing. There's chapters devoted to the competitions, the competitors. And there's a section here dedicated to speaking to professors about humor itself, about puns, about what makes a person sharp enough to come up with rapid fire puns. The professors are less than forth coming, very dry and jargony.