- Orsenna, Erik.
La grammaire est une chanson douce.
Paris: Poche, 2001.
ISBN 2-253-14910-1.
-
Ten year old Jeanne and her insufferable fourteen year old brother
survive a shipwreck and find themselves on an enchanted island
where words come alive and grammar escapes the rationalistic prison
of Madame Jargonos and her Cartesian colleagues in the black
helicopters (nice touch, that) to emerge as the intuitive music
of thought and expression. As Jeanne recovers her ability to speak,
we discover the joy of forging phrases from the raw material of
living words with the tools of grammar. The result of Jeanne's
day in the factory on page 129 is a pure delight. The author is
a member of
l'Académie française.
January 2005 