A review by anasothershelf
Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton

4.0

Fifty Sounds alludes to the 5 x 10 grid system used to organize Japanese syllabaries by the phonemes that comprise them, something akin to Western alphabetical order. Polly Barton adopts this concept to produce fifty vignettes about her life, headlined by a Japanese mimetic, a way-marker of her language and cultural immersion journey. The book is a deeply personal, self-indulgent memoir heavily influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language. Despite delving into linguistics and philosophy, Barton’s witty and relatable narrative remains approachable and inviting to the reader. At certain moments, it feels like trespassing through places and moments that you have not been invited to. Even so, I can’t help feeling a special pull towards translation and languages, “a rope leading all the way back” to a childhood learning a foreign language, to adulthood as I pursued my studies at University, and, finally, to a career I briefly dipped my toes into.

Full review here: https://thelagomfiles.com/2021/06/17/the-languages-that-speak-to-us/