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A review by marshamudpuddle
Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton
informative
reflective
4.0
Ultimately, I felt there were two books slightly wrestling with each other here, with the author never quite settling on which of two possible versions of the same book she was writing.
One was an essayistic book about how our whole way of interacting with the world, of understanding both it and ourselves, is shaped by language. Taking Wittgenstein as her main theoretical touchpoint, Barton explores this topic through the specific lens of what it is like to learn another language, in this case Japanese, and how it altered her sense of self and her sense of reality. Going beyond simple comparisons of Japanese and English (though there is plenty of this), Barton uses the differences between the two languages to burrow down into something deeper and more profound about how our lives are shaped by the words we learn, and how this learning is always personal, chaotic, emotional, and partial. She is extremely perceptive and thoughtful and reflexive as an essayist, folding ideas together in a really satisfying way. About half the book is like this, and I would without hesitation give that book 5 stars.
The other book, unfolding simultaneously with the more essayistic one, was a memoir about the same topic: her experiences as a foreigner in Japan, her memories of learning and failing in the Japanese language, her relationship with an older Japanese man she refers to only as Y (there is a lot about this) as well as her other friendships and relationships. This was all engagingly written, and I enjoyed plenty of the anecdotes, but I found myself less enthusiastically rapt when the book slipped into this more memoiristic register.
I also think the book would have benefited from being cut down by about a third: I understand why Barton wanted fifty chapters, to mirror the 'fifty sounds' of the gojūon (the grid of kana that make up Japanese onomatopoeia) and make the whole conceit of the book work, but this did mean it ended up being slightly repetitive towards the end.
Still, I'm very glad I read this and would still very much recommend it to anyone interested in language, translation, or the contemporary essay.
One was an essayistic book about how our whole way of interacting with the world, of understanding both it and ourselves, is shaped by language. Taking Wittgenstein as her main theoretical touchpoint, Barton explores this topic through the specific lens of what it is like to learn another language, in this case Japanese, and how it altered her sense of self and her sense of reality. Going beyond simple comparisons of Japanese and English (though there is plenty of this), Barton uses the differences between the two languages to burrow down into something deeper and more profound about how our lives are shaped by the words we learn, and how this learning is always personal, chaotic, emotional, and partial. She is extremely perceptive and thoughtful and reflexive as an essayist, folding ideas together in a really satisfying way. About half the book is like this, and I would without hesitation give that book 5 stars.
The other book, unfolding simultaneously with the more essayistic one, was a memoir about the same topic: her experiences as a foreigner in Japan, her memories of learning and failing in the Japanese language, her relationship with an older Japanese man she refers to only as Y (there is a lot about this) as well as her other friendships and relationships. This was all engagingly written, and I enjoyed plenty of the anecdotes, but I found myself less enthusiastically rapt when the book slipped into this more memoiristic register.
I also think the book would have benefited from being cut down by about a third: I understand why Barton wanted fifty chapters, to mirror the 'fifty sounds' of the gojūon (the grid of kana that make up Japanese onomatopoeia) and make the whole conceit of the book work, but this did mean it ended up being slightly repetitive towards the end.
Still, I'm very glad I read this and would still very much recommend it to anyone interested in language, translation, or the contemporary essay.