Away With Words

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Berkowitz's introduction to the Punslingers scene is a good example of his easy, generous approach to transportive detail and the gauzy metaphors that make this entire book about had-to-be-there moments possible. Which brings me to the most significant thought I had throughout AWW: my own relationship with puns. Finishing this book (and this review, I guess) is a strange juncture in my linguistic life. I like puns enough—have always loved puns enough, I should say—that once, in 2013, I announced to my then-girlfriend that I had decided I needed to stop punning because I was starting to spend too much brainpower looking for potential puns, to literally no social benefit. ( Ohh noooo, she cooed sadly, aware that I was painfully resigning an important part of my identity.) If someone urges you to spill the tea, they probably don’t want you tipping over a hot beverage. Originally, the tea here was the letter T, as in “truth.” To spill the T means to “pass along truthful information.” Plus, we’re serving up some delicious Italian idioms involving food. The Italian phrase that literally translates “eat the soup or jump out the window” means “take it or leave it,” and a phrase that translates as “we don’t fry with water around here” means “we don’t do things halfway.” Also: a takeoff word quiz, why carbonated beverages go by various names, including soda, coke, and pop; fill your boots, bangorrhea, cotton to, howdy; milkshake, frappe, velvet, frost, and cabinet; push-ups, press-ups and lagartijas; the Spanish origin of the word alligator, don’t break my plate or saw off my bench, FOMO after death, and much more. 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. At the same time, the book also highlights the importance of friendship, not just through Gala and Natalie, but also through their connection with some of the other kids in their class. The two Eilidhs were especially lovely.

I am an inveterate punster (yes, I could have said in vertebrate...), so when I saw this, I had to read it. It was painful. I love a well-crafted story leading up to a beautiful groaner of a pun. These competitions are about rapid fire punning to random categories. The champs groan them out and the audience response clap-o-meter determines who wins them. Berkowitz litters his narrative with examples. It’s a beautiful concept and it’s naturally and authentically drawn in this otherwise thoroughly realistic world. 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. Fast Company reporter Joe Berkowitz investigates the bizarre and hilarious world of pun competitions from the Punderdome 3000 in Brooklyn to the World competition in Austin. My introduction to the book came from briefly being a member of this posse. When I showed up to my first Punderdome earlier this year, I had no idea how intense a scene I was stepping into. I knew the show had existed for years, but I’d never gotten anyone to go with me and generally put off trying it. The first time I stepped into Littlefield, I signed up to participate and got paired with an established punster who had won four times. (Thank god; I would have fared horribly at coming up with two minutes worth of puns on my own, without even understanding the format.) We made it to the second round, but what I saw from the established punners that night blew me away.

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 Our certified interpreters are based in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Vancouver, but we have recently expanded our operations to remote areas throughout Washington, as well as communities in North Idaho and later Oregon. If you’re looking for quality, personalized service, you’ve come to the right place! Me and my pun partner ended up dating, and I started inching into the orbit of these friends who lived to pun. They went to every pun event in the city, launched their own pun show, and generally identified as having found their tribe. (There’s a great line on p. 196 that captures a feeling to which every New Yorker aspires. While being overtaken on the sidewalk by a wave of a psychotically fit running club, Berkowitz muses contentedly, “They’ve got their cult, and I’ve got mine.”) These pun people loved each other as much as they loved their chosen ministry in life. It was one of the healthiest, coolest groups of friends I’ve ever come across. Unfortunately, my relationship collapsed disastrously and they all hate me now. But just before it ended, I learned that my partner was actually in this book about punning. “Oh shit. I want to read a book that you’re in,” I said. My expectation was that this would be, you know, a cameo, maybe.

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.Competent, yes. Underwhelming, also yes. As somebody whose wife will happily point out that he won’t ever shut up if a loaded pun is ready to go off, I think it says something that this didn’t make me race to get through it. How wonderful is that? Ohhh I want to exist in a world where words are visible! It was enchanting. The story moves the pair into a situation where their kind hobby shines a spotlight on them both, forcing them to have to openly speak out in a way neither would normally have confidence doing. In this new middle grade/YA Cameron has again used elements of fantasy to explore real issues that face young people. The arc of the book revolves around the author dipping his toes into the sea of unusual personalities involved in the competitions, but unlike, say, the range of competitive Scrabble players, these are by and large a big bunch of dorks. Being a big dork myself, who likes puns, I feel competent to recognize my own kind. The two girls find their own ways to communicate, which includes collecting other people's discarded words. They use the words to write anonymous supportive poems for their classmates, but then someone begins leaving nasty messages using the same method - and the girls are blamed. Gala has finally started adapting to her new life in Scotland and is determined to find the culprit. Can she and Natalie show the school who they really are?

Set in a world where words appear physically when people speak, Away with Words explores the importance of communication and being there for those we love. Exploring the wonder of words and language, and the magic of friendship, Sophie Cameron’s Away with Wordsis a beautiful, inclusive marvelfor 11+-year-olds. The writing is magic, too, with emotions conjured in synesthetic technicolour, for in this extraordinary story world, words take on a physical form when people speak. They fall from mouths, fly through the air, bounce off walls. And they’re collected, curated and gifted with transformative results, too. When Joe Berkowitz witnessed his first Punderdome competition, it felt wrong in the best way. Something impossible seemed to be happening. The kinds of jokes we learn to repress through social conditioning were not only being aired out in public—they were being applauded. As it turned out, this monthly show was part of a subculture that’s been around in one form or another since at least the late ‘70s. Its pinnacle is the O. Henry Pun Off World Championship, an annual tournament in Austin, Texas. As someone who is terminally self-conscious, Joe was both awed and jealous of these people who confidently killed with the most maligned form of humor. 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. In this story of hope and endurance, we follow a scientist and her team during their search for the elusive 'Giant Arctic Jellyfish'.Ok, here's the deal: a good simile does more than note physical similarities; it adds an additional dimension to the thing being described. If I say that a tree's leaves are like butterfly wings, this communicates something about the shape of the leaves, sure, but also the essence of the leaves themselves, which are perhaps delicate, fluttering, tremulous, and ephemeral (like a butterfly).

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.The Nottinghill Carnival takes central stage in this story about families, memories and the power of dance and festivals. Author Yaba Badoe tells... 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?"