Reviews for Peacocks and commas

The average rating for Peacocks and commas based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-07-25 00:00:00 Stuart Rinehart I learned of this book through a recommendation in an interview from Terry Pratchett - author recommendations still being a better way of discovering new books than any algorithm I've met, even if they do occasionally go awry and leave you reading Jonathan Carroll. Anyway, the central conceit here is that mainstay of historical comedy - the people in the past are aware of our terms for and perspective on their period. So the narrator's father is given to grand speeches about how the family are on the verge of making it from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic, and so forth. And, given how much of this could almost serve as a school primer on prehistory, that really shouldn't be as funny as it is. I think the secret may be the terribly fifties British tone of the narration.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-07-09 00:00:00 Yvonne Hartley I read the presentation on the back cover of the italian edition, and I've been hooked ever since. è un libro inclassificabile: una riflessione romanzesca, acutissima e leggera, su tutta la storia dell'umanità, contrassegnata in ogni dettaglio da quella limpidezza e da quell'ironia che appartengono alla migliore tradizione letteraria e scientifica inglese. Quando Théodore Monod lesse questo libro, segnalò all'autore uno o due errori tecnici, subito aggiungendo "che non importavano un accidente, perché la lettura del libro l'aveva fatto ridere tanto che era caduto da un cammello nel bel mezzo del Sahara". Do you understand Italian? No? Who cares. The bottom line is: it's great. It's Darwin meeting Monty Python. Father, the clan leader, is the proto-politician, bringing his family into the most modern of the worlds, no matter what. Yes, sometimes he is annoying. The family comply, with the exception of uncle Vania. The clan takes into the discovery of fire (for the household), modern cuisine (elephant bbq), warfare (from spears to bows), arts, fashion and foreign politics. Then you put down the book a second to look at the news on tv and the only difference you can see is in the outfit of the spokesperson. This should be in everybody's library