If you know the basics of punctuation and are looking for something that offers more complex usage, this isn't it. What Eats, Shoots & Leaves does is blithly, humorously take the reader into the mind of the punctuation obsessed. I'm a bit of a grammar and punctuation freak, so I can totally attest to a lot of what Truss is saying, however, at the same time, most of the information she conveys is really only for those who slept through their English classes, and really, those aren't going to be the people who pick this up.
No, what Truss is doing is preaching to the converted, and unfortunately, her very basic guide to punctuation doesn't exactly fit into a book that is really for those people who are well versed in the basics. Yes, I know where a comma goes. Yes, I understand that ownership must be denoted, and that you're and your are different creatures. If I didn't, I doubt this book would have much appealed to me.
This works more as an extremely funny rant than the guide it proposes to be, but as a rant, it succeeds. It's only when Truss decides to be teacher instead of writer that the work falls down.
3/5
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