New York, Nov 12: When it comes to bad manners, today`s society is pretty much a hopeless case, author Lynne Truss says.
That didn`t stop her front ranting about it in her latest book Talk to the Hand, a self-described "moral homily" that attacks rudeness the same way she critiqued bad punctuation in her 2003 best-seller Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
"Please" and "thank you" are endangered in the public discourse, she writes in her new work, increasingly drowned out by inane mobile phone chatter, dismal customer service and the vulgar epithet she writes as "Eff Off."
"I say in the book that I have a flame of hope (that manners will improve) but it`s very, very, very small," she told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday, the day after her book came out.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves sold 3 million copies worldwide, its publisher said. Seizing on that success, Gotham Books has rushed out Talk to the Hand, which Truss calls "a big, systematic moan about modern life."
The New York Times called it "a thin and crabby diatribe" in a book review, adding, "The author may have been good for only one book-length conniption."
In any case, Truss said writing her 206-page rant was therapeutic.
"It really, really made me feel better," she said. "I don`t know whether I`ve just dumped it all onto my readers, which could be the case. I may have made everybody else feel bad in the process but I`ve made myself feel much better."
Bureau Report
