Reviews for Questions and Answers in Embedded Contexts

The average rating for Questions and Answers in Embedded Contexts based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-12-10 00:00:00 Eric Slaughter Interesting ruminations from an obviously terrific essayist, but two things struck me: (1) could've been a lot shorter & less detailed about certain life stories that drag the reader far from the intended book subject, and (2) for someone making a book that deals largely with correct word usage, I was AMAZED at the sheer number of proofreading errors that lead to glaring misspellings and/or grammatical mistakes. In other words, Mr. Stavans, keep on doing what you're doing, but for chrissakes, get yourself a new editor!

Review # 2 was written on 2013-02-09 00:00:00 Ray Burgess An extended and rather free-form mediation on words and dictionaries. Some of the pieces I enjoyed, some of them just seemed self-indulgent to me. I was drawn into the book by the conversation between the author and his son, the first piece in the book, but none of the rest of the book was as engaging. I think… the author was too present. I gathered as I went through the book that I was expected to know who he was, and even to know of his previous works - of which it turns out there are many - but since I didn't, all the references to other things he had written and how he felt about things just felt self-indulgent. It's a small book, but it took me several days and some extended bus rides to get through it. (Never underestimate the value of enforced time with a book.) Still, by the same token, it's a small book and I might re-read it to find the parts that I did like and make notes from them before it moves on - as it will - to the "sell" pile.