Here’s one such gem: A choice of terms may depend on an intuitive perception of nuances and visualizing of scenes: “She tucked her arm affectionately in his.” The tucking of an arm is best done by the party in whose elbow the other’s hand is placed “ slipped her arm in his” gives the truer sense of the scene. But too often the examples Barzun gives are wildly outdated. And some of the exercises at the end of each section are helpful. Though I didn’t learn anything new from Simple & Direct, it was a good refresher on some of the basics. This is not to say there’s not good writing advice in the book. Barzun is not amusing he’s just pretentious. Other writers-on-writing are also curmudgeonly-to some extent, it’s a posture that has gone with the territory for a long time-but they’re also winsome and funny: William Zinsser is the prime example, and Bryan Garner and others also come to mind. But another apt title for this book would be “Condescending & Curmudgeonly.” Throughout the book, Jacques Barzun assumes that if you don’t write well, you are an ignorant, thoughtless person who doesn’t deserve any of his time. “Simple & Direct” is a great title-it’s the general theme of a lot of what I teach my students and what apply when working with my writing clients. How sad (and surprising), then, that when I finally read it, I actually disliked it. I’ve had this book on my to-read list for a long time, because it’s frequently referenced by other books I’ve read about writing.
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