G'day from Oz!
Just finished The Broken Shore by Peter Temple, an Australian crime novel loaded with great writing and biting social commentary about race relations Down Under. Because Temple's rough characters speak in Aussie slang, the book included a glossary. How else would you know that Maccas means McDonald's, or a chook snag sanger is a chicken sausage sandwich? (For a more exhaustive list, try this site.) Got me wondering about other books that needed a glossary to keep the reader from getting lost in the tall grass. Only one I can recall reading is Dune. Any others to add to the list?
(p.s. That's a roo above, and not a boomer)
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, 
Comments
Huck Finn.
Trainspotting.
They are both written in English apparently....
Posted by: Pat | June 27, 2008 11:01 AM
"Watership Down" has a "Lapine glossary". I heard that the professional reader on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Chapter a Day" stopped reading and walked out of the studio in the middle of a chapter, saying it was ridiculous. I loved the book, but I don't think the imaginary language added to it at all, it just made it a bit difficult to get through the first few chapters.
Posted by: Michelle Johnston | June 27, 2008 11:02 AM
I must have read 2 dozen Agatha Christie's before I learned that 'queu'd up' meant lined up and not "all agitated" which was what I'd decided the phrase meant. Wow, I'll bet some of those plotlines would have made a different sense!
Posted by: Granny | June 27, 2008 12:30 PM
The first 200 pages plus of Medusa:The Beginning, a sci fi novel by Kathi Harris, required a glossary of Jamaican phrases and words. The first part of the novel is set on the island of Jamaica and they do speak a patois that's more than just adding "man" to the end of every sentence!
Posted by: Harvee Lau | June 12, 2009 1:18 PM