Language of the Blurbosphere

William Safire parses the “fulsome lingo of book ads and catalogs” for his latest “On Language.”

Acclaimed

a book with at least one good review

Widely acclaimed

a book with two or more reviews, plus a cable-TV plug

Critically acclaimed

a book decently reviewed in a specialized publication; also, a book that didn’t sell

Unfortunately, though, Safire chooses to contrast the typical phoniness of blurbs with a note of praise from Saul Bellow about one of Safire’s novels. “It was the most generous ‘acclaim’ a journeyman novelist could hope for,” Safire writes — which goes to show: just as beauty exists in the eye of the beholder, a compliment’s sincerity exists in the eye of the beholden.

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