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Truss tries hand at manners


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If ever there were an unlikely best seller, it was Lynne Truss' witty guide to punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Dealing with such hot topics as the use and misuse of apostrophes and commas, it sold more than 3million copies worldwide and was crowned USA TODAY's Book of the Year in 2004.

Truss, a British newspaper columnist and radio host, stalks bigger prey in Talk to the Hand, which takes on "the utter bloody rudeness of the world today."

She's on to something, but her new book is less focused, less practical and less satisfying. She flashes her wicked sense of humor but calls her book "a big, systematic moan about modern life."

Even in just 206 pages, moaning goes only so far.

The title is borrowed from one of her targets: TV. Talk to the Hand alludes to what she calls "a response of staggering rudeness best known from The Jerry Springer Show -- 'Talk to the hand, coz the face ain't listening,' accompanied by an aggressive palm held out at arm's length."

Truss acknowledges that TV is an easy and obvious target to blame for the demise of manners. But then she goes on to say, "Just because it's obvious doesn't mean it's not true."

She implicates popular culture "in the all-out plummeting of social standards. Abuse is the currency of all reality shows. People being vulgar and rude to each other in contrived, stressful situations is TV's bread and butter."

She rounds up the other usual suspects: permissive parents, cellphones, the Internet, the undervaluing of teachers and the culture of blame.

Oddly, and without explanation, she also blames "the absence of war."

She is sent over the edge by high-tech consumer service and asks, "Isn't it confusing that our biggest experience of formal politeness comes from the recorded voices on automated switchboards -- who patently don't mean it?

"'We are sorry we cannot connect you at this time,' says the voice. But does it sound sorry? No. ... 'Please hold. Thank you for holding. We are sorry you are having to hold. We are sorry to say please. Excuse us for saying sorry. We are sorry to say thank you'....

"'Thank you for choosing to wait for an adviser,' says the voice. 'Choose,' you yell back. 'I didn't Effing choose this. Don't tell me what I Effing chose!'"

For a book on manners, Truss does a lot of yelling, although she does apologize for the high incidence of the "Effing" euphemism in her book.

And she does end optimistically, urging, "Let's try pretending to be polite, and see what happens."

She promises to stop shouting at boys on skateboards, "if that will help."

To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com

© Copyright 2004 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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