This book is deserving of about 10 stars!, December 4, 1999

As a Spanish major who has also spent several summers in Mexico, I have read pretty much every Spanish text I have come across. In all that reading, I have never found another Spanish book that even comes close to this one (in accuracy, helpfulness, readability, and other key areas).

Keenan does an excellent job of picking out the specific Spanish words and phrases that cause English speakers the most problems. I have several friends who are also studying Spanish. It seems like 9 times out of 10 when they ask me a question, it is an issue that was covered in "Breaking out.."

This book was written with the reader's attention span in mind. Imagine: a Spanish text that is actually enjoyable to read! I read this book cover-to-cover at least once a year. Every time I glean some new pointer that I can implement in my constant quest to sound like less of a gringa.

Sections include a discussion of the subjunctive, a chapter on cursing (!), cultural info, general language learning tips, useful verbs to add to your repertoire, and discussion of the evolution of the Spanish language. To me, the most helpful sections were those dealing with word choice: a couple of chapters that deal with stuff like "what is the difference between regresar, volver, devolver, etc.?"

If you have a general grasp of the basics in Spanish but feel like your learning has kind of reached a plateau, this book is an excellent resource for learning how to get your Spanish to the next level.

The only negative I can think of is that the book is not indexed. As a result, after reading the book initially, when you find yourself with a question that you know was answered somewhere in the book (a frequent ocurrence), it sometimes takes a moment to flip through the book and find the exact paragraph where he talked about it.

If I could only have one Spanish book, it would be this one. I would even choose it over 501 verbs and probably even my dictionary.

Excellent but not for amateurs..., January 16, 2002

I moved to Mexico two years ago and enrolled in a language school right off the bat. I also bought this book. After reading it, I thought it was helpful, but not excessively so because I didn't quite "get" everything it was trying to tell me. I stuck it on the bookshelf.

Now, two years later, I'm going through it again and discovering a virtual gold mine of information. My point being: Take the book's title seriously. This is a book for people firmly at the intermediate level or above. For these people, it answers a ton of things that have proved baffling. For these people, the book is a gem. If you are departing the beginner stage, this stupendous book will answer lots of those things you've been scratching your head over. Immensely valuable.

Too Bad its Out of Print!, September 22, 2004

I am attempting an immersion method to learn Spanish and trying to read both this book and 1001 Pitfalls in Spanish. And I am also doing the Learning Like Crazy Spansih course which seems to be going really well. www.learningspanishlikecrazy.com. Both Spanish books are great for an intermediate or an advanced level Student. But not for the beginner. If you are just a novice, then you should try Spanish - Verbs & Essentials of Grammar by Ina W. Ramboz.

The book you need to really understand and speak Spanish, September 7, 2004

This is a great book. Among the chapter highlights are:

- Ten Ways to Avoid Being Taken for a Gringo: Excellent things to think about if you want to fit in and not insult people by your actions.

- Minding Your Verbal Manners: Things Spanish-speakers would take for granted that any considerate, well-groomed person would know.

- The Secret Life of Verbs: Almost everything you need to know about verbs in general. (I like the summary of the future tense: for the most part, forget about it. But he does give a good summary on the use of the "Future of Uncertainty" construction.)

- The Twilight Zone: All about that nasty subjunctive mood. Those who have studied Latin or Greek will not find the subjunctive terribly scary, but for everybody else...

- Sixty-four Verbs: Better descriptions on their range of meaning and usages that the one-liners usually provided in dictionaries don't cover.

- Cranking Up Your Spanish: All those sentence starters ("En fin," "Es que," "A ver," etc.) that don't show up in grammars and can drive you crazy since they set the scene for the rest of the sentence.

- Snappy Answers: Quick responses to things that may catch you off-guard.

- Invective and Obscenity: Survey of forceful, rude, and obscene speech (with the obligatory warnings about things that may get you in a fight)

- Which is Which: Words that English speakers often confuse.

- Influences of Spanish on English and vice-versa

From my point of view, among the good points of the book are:

1. It helps with many problems the beginner is likely to have. Most language books are written by native speakers of the language. In this book, Keenan takes a different approach: he is going to explain all of the problems he had himself while learning the language and using it for many years among native Spanish-speakers. Since I expect I will have most of the same problems, having them laid out is very helpful.

2. It is extremely engaging. I have spent many nights up late reading it. Yes, you read that right. Don't think in terms of your typical grammar book: think in terms of an long article where a fellow Spanish learner says "Ok, here's everything I learned about the language."

3. It has filled in my experience with my other Spanish courses. Often, idiomatic words or phrases will come up in them that don't make a lot of sense. Keenan explains virtually all of them, including which sound stilted or odd to Spanish-speakers.

4. It has excellent sections on the difference between ser and estar and between the imperfect and the preterite. These are two of the bugaboos that traditionally plague us Spanish students. The ser/estar treatment in particular is better than any book I've used: he goes far beyond the typical "estar is for things that change" explanation - which is true but incomplete. I finally understand, for example, why you say "est?muerto" instead of "es muerto."

5. It has good sections on how not to give offense to people from different cultures. In every culture, people do some things completely innocently that are interpreted in other cultures as aggressive or insulting. Although there is no single "Hispanic" culture, Keenan helps by pointing out some things that are commonly considered negative that I might not expect. I should note that Keenan's experience is primarily in Mexico, so most of the cultural and localized language usage tips are centered on Mexico.

I really, really, wanted to give this book 5 stars, but I can't. So what's not to like? Just two things, really:

1. It has no index. This makes it difficult to find words or phrases. I would expect this kind of book to have a fairly extensive index, but none is provided. As I use this book more and more, I find this to be a bigger and bigger problem. Often, I'll find I need to use some verb or construction and want to look it up. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to do because it could be in one of several chapters. Let's say I'm trying to remember something about a given verb: do I look in "Tricksters," "The Secret Life of Verbs," "The Twilight Zone," "Sixty-Four Verbs," or "Spanish Roots?" Or, let's say you are trying to remember a word or expression that you seem to recall is sometimes misused, and you want to use it right. Do you look in "Tricksters," "Invective and Obscenity," "Which is Which?", "Say it Right," or "The Big Mix?" I have spent more time than I like leafing through the various chapters looking for a word that could have been indexed.

2. Keenan uses obscenities more freely than I'd like (even outside the chapter specifically on obscenities). Now, I'm not a "schoolmarm" (Keenan's words); but I don't want to be reading (and don't necessarily want children to be reading either) this kind of language. It would have been fairly easy to substitute non-obscene language in most of these places, but he doesn't.

For these reasons, I could not give this book five stars. But, overall it is an excellent book, and one that will greatly enrich both your understanding and your fluency.

By the way, I've read other reviews and lists saying that this book is more for advanced students of Spanish. ?o es verdad! While I'd agree that it's probably not for rank beginners, I believe one of the keys to really learning a language is to get out there and starting speaking to people as soon as you can. And this book gives you the tools to get out there, speak confidently and semi-fluently, and not give offence when you don't mean to.

El mejor!, July 25, 2004

I would give this book 7 stars if possible!

If you are ready to start speaking colloquial Spanish, the way it is really used, rather than the way the text books teach.. then this book is for you.

This book is written by an anglophone, fluent in Spanish (obviously) and directed toward the anglophone student of Spanish who understands the basics, can converse in Spanish basics, but wants to take their abilities to the 'next level.' This book is a must-read (multiple times) that is sure to produce many an 'ah ha!' as the lightbulbs go on. Appropriately titled, this book will help you break out and advance to the next level.

Readers will learn how to avoid the common mistakes generally made by native anglophones speaking Spanish. Also very helpful is a section that explains when to use certain verbs in situations instead of another. There is even a short section on obsenities for those interested.

Your conversational Spanish partners will definitely notice an improvment when you start applying some of the lessons from this book and using all your newly learned colloquialisms.

Quit speaking like a text-book-trained-Gringo and start sounding like a native today!

Great book, May 25, 2004

Good reading. I've learned alot from this book and found it to be very interesting. It is quite entertaining; the author is very humorous.