Despite the energetically enthusiastic assertions of the publisher and of Piatelli-Palmirini, whooffers an extensive foreword beginning “This dialogue is a gem,” I found that thisenormous book did not live up to its hype. I was hoping to find an engaging discussion—ina format I liked from the earlier Lasnik and Uriagareka A course in GB syntax(1988)—that would bring me up to date on the Minimalist Program, from a positionsomewhere mid-GB. However, I rarely felt the dialogue was intended to welcome the uninitiated.First, its style is irritating, with attempts to be cute that just end up being distracting. Second,many parts of the discussion seem much more aimed at colleagues and rivals on the inside thanthose members of the larger community for whom the book is designed (as suggested, at least, bythe blurb). This is particularly a shame, given that Piatelli-Palmirini's preface explicitly says,patronizingly, that the book will be good for those applied linguists who get irritated withconstant change in linguistic theory (p. xxxiv).