Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from the National Review

Willam F. Buckley was a Genius, Hilarious and intellectual. A Conservative Pioneer and A Catholic hero for me.Although I am 27,I sense these modern times can use Someone Like Mr.Buckley,His wit and Wisdom along with Replies to readers of National Review are in this book.Nevermind Chomsky,Mailer and other washed out so-called intellectuals.

As a committed Liberal, I despise everything Bill Buckley espoused, but I adored the man. National Review was anathema, except for Buckley's columns which would make me seethe, or laugh, or snarl -- but there was no resisting those words. Notes and Asides consists of Buckley at his most entertaining, wielding those $20 words, creating sentences that marched right off the page into battle, and giving us an insight into one of the most complex thinkers in modern history. Love him? Hate him? Doesnt matter. This book will hold anyone who loves words and ideas spellbound for hours. But then that's true about almost anything written by Mr. B (with the exception of his novels, which I have never been able to fathom). Notes and Asides is selected from Buckley's responses to letters to the editor of National Review. His correspondence with Art Buchwald is worth the price of admission. Buy the book. Read it. You'll learn something, the cobwebs will blow out of your brain, and you'll experience some of the best use of the English language in this century. Just don't agree with him.

One of the things which first hooked me on "National Review" when I was younger was the hilarious informality of Bill Buckley's "Notes and Asides" column. He set apart space in his magazine to joust with some readers and have fun with others, in a gloriously unbuttoned style that was irresistible to a budding teenage libertarian like me. He has gathered together his greatest hits in "Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription" (a title which perfectly sums up the wonderfully impudent tone of the book.) In some ways Buckley was the original blogger and this book provides a running history of U.S. politics and culture in recent decades from one guy's brilliantly witty perspective. If you are looking for a way to ease into Buckley's voluminous writings this is an excellent place to start.

This book is a collection of comments and letters from the Notes and Asides section of National Review, so naturally this collection will be of most interest to long time readers of NR and Buckley fans. I have never laughed harder in my laugh. Whether he is struggling with liberals, errors in newspapers, or conservatives who are offended by his haircut, Buckley has an unmatched wit. The book is arranged chronologically moving from the 60s until the column was cancelled in 2005. So pick up this book, pull up to a fire place with a drink at your side, and prepare for an enjoyable trip down memory lane as you relive the unique correspondence that Buckley shared with his readers, friends, and foes.

National Review and William F. Buckley Jr. have been a delight in my life for decades. One of the great features of magazine was called Notes and Asides. It contained a wonderfully strange mix of letters with responses from Buckley that covered language, politics, arts, challenges, witty exchanges, questions, requests, WFB's posture, and letters from Presidents. They are all wonderful in their way and many are laugh out loud funny. This book is a chronological collection of selections from this department from 1967-2005. Not only are these exchanges wonderful insights into the times in which they were written, they bring back wonderful memories and fill in some of the things I missed. There is an ongoing joke between WFB and Art Buchwald about the perks Buchwald is getting from his Hertz Platinum card that he assumes WFB is not getting or getting more of than him. It is all good fun. We also get some warmish exchanges between WFB and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., some light tweaking between John Kenneth Galbraith and WFB, and letters WFB sent to various publications correcting statements made about him in their pages. There is also the wonderful fun Buckley has with language and those who criticize his usage, "accent", and vocabulary. He handles it all with good humor and patiently explains that his first language was Spanish, then French, and didn't speak English until he was five. One of the fun bits recounts the famous phrase "immanentize the eschaton". Did you know it became a motto of Young Americans for Freedom? What does it mean? Simply to attempt to bring from the transcendent from the spiritual world (the eschaton) into this world (the immanent). It is a criticism of hubris in liberal attempts to try and create a literal Heaven on Earth. Buckley also had long legal battles with certain trade unions because Charlton Heston and Tom Selleck did commercials for National Review gratis. Another union earlier had demanded that Buckley join in order to do Firing Line for free and give it away. There are also nice letters to and from friends that are touching and always interesting. However, I will state that I am not the only one that thinks Buckley wrong to use the name of God as a mere intensifier simply because it is common usage. There are lots of things in common usage that he, as a serious Christian, does not do. Misusing the Lord's name in this way is one of them. But in the balance, Buckley has given me (and others) so much, that it is something I can ignore. This book is fun and I encourage you to get it, read it, and enjoy the fun the art of letter writing can provide. I know it is an almost extinct art form, but maybe it can be revived if enough people remember how delightful a well written letter and reply can be. Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI