This was such a moving and imaginative look at language, but also the very 'human' desire to find meaning in life.
In the case of the Word, this search was literal in the sense that following an incident she had lost her memory and no longer remembered her name or therefore her meaning.
She then embarks on an Alice in Wonderland-esque journey to discover her meaning.
Along the way she meets a number of words whose meanings are now lost - essentially words that have fallen into disuse such as looking-glass (replaced by the younger model mirror) and Wherefore (replaced by why).
It was a really quick read but as a lover of old obsolete words it got me thinking about language and how it changes and as the author had cleverly given these words personalities I felt a bit guilty about all these long-lost words.
I'm not going to lie this was a weird book but that was all part of its charm.
In the case of the Word, this search was literal in the sense that following an incident she had lost her memory and no longer remembered her name or therefore her meaning.
She then embarks on an Alice in Wonderland-esque journey to discover her meaning.
Along the way she meets a number of words whose meanings are now lost - essentially words that have fallen into disuse such as looking-glass (replaced by the younger model mirror) and Wherefore (replaced by why).
It was a really quick read but as a lover of old obsolete words it got me thinking about language and how it changes and as the author had cleverly given these words personalities I felt a bit guilty about all these long-lost words.
I'm not going to lie this was a weird book but that was all part of its charm.