The Years of Talking Dangerously

May 15, 2009
Fans of William Safires On Language columns (which have been collected in several books) will definitely want to check out this gathering of Nunbergs newspaper columns and NPR commentaries. Like Safire, Nunberg writes about a variety of language-related topics, from the etymologies of epithets, to the editorial style of Time magazine, to politically loaded buzzwords (Islamo-fascism, anybody?), to the digitization of works of literature, to the mutability of language itself. The authors style is more informal than SafiresNunberg sounds like hes chatting with the readerand the book is full of fun little moments that should delight language mavens (check out, for example, the essay in which the author makes sarcastic fun of Dick Cavetts sarcastic essay about the decline of English). Its the kind of book that you read, absorb, and then think about for a while afterward. Nunberg is not as well known as Safire, but this book may go a ways toward changing that.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)