The Grammarians

The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A story of sisters--twins who both share a love of language but whose approach to words reflect their different perspectives of life that eventually create a rift between them. (I also loved the subtle bromance of their husbands and wished there was more of it in there.). They share a secret language growing up but use it less and less as they grow apart. Perhaps most tellingly, it is their approach to motherhood and their careers that really starts and intensifies their divergence. Each sister adheres to her perception of words and life without recognizing that so much of their lives are the same--using the same words in different ways, success in different areas, both have a kid and husbands that love them. Fittingly, it is the essence of language that will bring them back together again.

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Identical twins, dressed in identical outfits--are they half or double?

"Who thinks of 'chaotic', 'operatic', 'dilation', and 'direful' as malformations?  Yet nome of them have any right to exist...."  Except they do exist, and by existing, "have now all the rights of words regularly made.  They have prospered, and none dare call them treason...."

What people call 'standard' English is really just the dialect of the elite.