There Are Many Reasons to Love Louis Menand

...to which we can now add his review of his review of Eats Shoots & Leaves. Other reviewers have dealt glancing blows, but if literary criticism has any power left in this nation, Menand's made a fatal strike.

"The supreme peculiarity of this peculiar publishing phenomenon is that the British are less rigid about punctuation and related matters, such as footnote and bibliographic form, than Americans are. An Englishwoman lecturing Americans on semicolons is a little like an American lecturing the French on sauces. Some of Truss’s departures from punctuation norms are just British laxness. In a book that pretends to be all about firmness, though, this is not a good excuse. The main rule in grammatical form is to stick to whatever rules you start out with, and the most objectionable thing about Truss’s writing is its inconsistency. Either Truss needed a copy editor or her copy editor needed a copy editor."

After which, he delves into a delightful meditation on the idea of "voice" in writing, which among other things makes me want to track down James Agee's film reviews.