RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewMcWhorter deftly models a way for us to think deeply and systematically about language while celebrating its wildness, its slipperiness and its silliness ... McWhorter’s literary style does justice to the reality that language is a living thing ... His anecdotes about his own run-ins with profanities encouraged me to reflect, with amusement and new interest, on how often those words have starred in my own life’s dramas and comedies. And throughout the book, McWhorter gives a master class in the comedic value of taking swearing seriously. Sometimes these moments are winningly puerile ... On other occasions, the wordplay is less nakedly obvious ... The book’s winking style doesn’t stop McWhorter from taking his subject seriously ... McWhorter gives a beautiful account of what it means to engage seriously with language as an individual with multiple personal and professional identities ... Personal perspective, however, is not without pitfalls, and at several moments in the book I wondered if McWhorter’s opinion was masquerading as fact ... In lieu of a complete list of works consulted, McWhorter gives only a bare-bones selected bibliography in his notes ... Moments...in which evidence is AWOL are not the only reason I’m petitioning for a bibliography ... I’m hammering hard on the lack of citations because I thought so highly of the book over all: It deserves to be taught in classrooms, and deserves to be quoted ... a deeply intelligent celebration of language that teaches us how to see English in high definition and love it as it really is, right now and in its myriad incarnations to come.
