“A delightful mix of grammar and growth, words and wonder. Patty and her book are both full of life, epitomizing the Latin phrase ad astra per aspera — to the stars through difficulties. Consider letting carpe diem be your catchphrase, or even carpe noctem: seize the day or seize the night and read this book.”
– The Washington Post
“From amo, amas in Poughkeepsie to latter-day Latinists on the Palatine Hill, Ann Patty’s late-life affair with Latin has everything: grammar, gossip, lovely gray hair, lust, and mother woes. A book after my own heart.”
— Mary Norris, author of Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
Living with a Dead Languge is a kind of “Eat, Pray, Love” for the “Caecilius in horto est” set—those of us who studied the Cambridge Latin Course, with its familiar first sentence. Patty’s book is an effort on the part of the author to decipher her own life by deciphering two-thousand-year-old texts…the parts of “the parts that feel most vitalare the moments in which Patty lets her word-nerd flag fly, and shows the specificity of Latin’s enriching possibilities for a person who has spent her life working in words.”
–Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker
“A delightful mix of grammar and growth, words and wonder. Patty and her book are both full of life, epitomizing the Latin phrase ad astra per aspera — to the stars through difficulties. Consider letting carpe diem be your catchphrase, or even carpe noctem: seize the day or seize the night and read this book.”
– The Washington Post
“From amo, amas in Poughkeepsie to latter-day Latinists on the Palatine Hill, Ann Patty’s late-life affair with Latin has everything: grammar, gossip, lovely gray hair, lust, and mother woes. A book after my own heart.”
— Mary Norris, author of Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
“I never expected to finish a book on language with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. But Latin is no ordinary language, and Ann Patty is no ordinary writer. I don’t know the Latin for ‘Wow!’ So I’ll steal a word from this captivating book: Splendidissimus!”
—Patricia T. O’Conner, author of Woe Is I
“Patty’s goal is not merely to understand Latin, but to inhabit it . . . She isn’t the first retiree to find anxiety in a country retreat, turning to the Latin masters as sources of insight and instruction. . . . like Montaigne, Patty often writes about one subject as a way of writing about many others.”
– The Christian Science Monitor
“If you like words, if you have a penchant, even a rusty penchant, for classical culture, allow me to recommend Living with a Dead Language. . .[. . .There is as much about Ms. Patty’s autobiography as about the Ablative Absolute in this book – but that just adds a dollop of human warmth to the narrative.”
– The New Criterion
“Ann Patty’s struggles and triumphs with Latin’s complex laws and mysteries enrich the reader even as they lead her to a new and deeper understanding of the complexities of her own life, past and present, and of her place in the world.”
– Abigail Thomas, author of What Comes Next and How to Like It
“An excellent introduction to [Latin]. . .Patty’s passion for the poetry of Catullus, Propertius, Lucretius, Ovid and Virgil is infectious, and, by paying particular attention to the flexibility in word order available to an author using an inflected language, she succeeds in conveying the canny artistry of Latin verse. She offers a sensitive model for how to read poetry in any language.”
— The San Francisco Chronicle
“It’s not just the fascination of getting a crash course in Latin that fuels this unique, interesting memoir, it’s the spirit, mind and wit of a woman of a certain age who refuses to sit back; get soft, boring and stupid; and otherwise give up on life. I loved this book and the smart, enormously likable woman who has breathed so much life into its pages.”
— George Hodgman, author of Bettyville
“A lovely elegy to a dead language and a dead mother, reclaiming both from the past and firmly placing them in the luminous present. This is a lively, passionate, learned and affecting book about language and love, loss and redemption.”
— Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi
“What an enchanting tribute not simply to Latin, but to the power words possess to transform a life. Language is the heroine of this passionate, engaging book. Ann Patty has written her way fearlessly–and even comically–past loss and disappointment into a radiant new way of life and love.”
— Patricia Hampl, author of The Florist’s Daughter
“This lively, refreshingly candid and high-spirited book courses with an infectious love of language, and is buoyed by the author’s engaging personality, which shines through on every page.”
— Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan
“I never expected to finish a book on language with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. But Latin is no ordinary language, and Ann Patty is no ordinary writer. I don’t know the Latin for ‘Wow!’ So I’ll steal a word from this captivating book: Splendidissimus!”
—Patricia T. O’Conner, author of Woe Is I
“Patty’s goal is not merely to understand Latin, but to inhabit it . . . She isn’t the first retiree to find anxiety in a country retreat, turning to the Latin masters as sources of insight and instruction. . . . like Montaigne, Patty often writes about one subject as a way of writing about many others.”
– The Christian Science Monitor
“If you like words, if you have a penchant, even a rusty penchant, for classical culture, allow me to recommend Living with a Dead Language. . .[. . .There is as much about Ms. Patty’s autobiography as about the Ablative Absolute in this book – but that just adds a dollop of human warmth to the narrative.”
– The New Criterion
“Ann Patty’s struggles and triumphs with Latin’s complex laws and mysteries enrich the reader even as they lead her to a new and deeper understanding of the complexities of her own life, past and present, and of her place in the world.”
– Abigail Thomas, author of What Comes Next and How to Like It
“An excellent introduction to [Latin]. . .Patty’s passion for the poetry of Catullus, Propertius, Lucretius, Ovid and Virgil is infectious, and, by paying particular attention to the flexibility in word order available to an author using an inflected language, she succeeds in conveying the canny artistry of Latin verse. She offers a sensitive model for how to read poetry in any language.”
— The San Francisco Chronicle
“It’s not just the fascination of getting a crash course in Latin that fuels this unique, interesting memoir, it’s the spirit, mind and wit of a woman of a certain age who refuses to sit back; get soft, boring and stupid; and otherwise give up on life. I loved this book and the smart, enormously likable woman who has breathed so much life into its pages.”
— George Hodgman, author of Bettyville
“A lovely elegy to a dead language and a dead mother, reclaiming both from the past and firmly placing them in the luminous present. This is a lively, passionate, learned and affecting book about language and love, loss and redemption.”
— Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi
“What an enchanting tribute not simply to Latin, but to the power words possess to transform a life. Language is the heroine of this passionate, engaging book. Ann Patty has written her way fearlessly–and even comically–past loss and disappointment into a radiant new way of life and love.”
— Patricia Hampl, author of The Florist’s Daughter
“This lively, refreshingly candid and high-spirited book courses with an infectious love of language, and is buoyed by the author’s engaging personality, which shines through on every page.”
— Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan