Der Dativ ist dem Genetiv sein Tod...

[alexpgp]

I've been wondering about this book for a while. I picked up a copy during a layover in Frankfurt some time ago (an impulse buy of a book I can't read... now that's rich!), but nobody I've approached so far has been able to explain the title to me, so there's nothing to be done but actually take a look at some of the text. My German is, um, poor, but here's my take on the first few sentences of the book:

Ein paar Worte vorweg

Wilkommen im Todestal des Genetivs! Dieses Buch wird Ihnen als Reiseführer auf einem abenteuerlichen Rundgang durch die Wildnis der deutscher Sprache dienen. Es zeigt Ihnen, wie man sich mit der Machete einen Weg durch widerspenstiges grammatisches Gestrüpp schlagen kann, es fürht Sie um syntaktische Fallgruben herum, weist Sie auf orthographischen Treibsand hin und bringt Sie sicher übers stilistische Glatteis.

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Two words up front

Welcome to the death valley of the genetive! This book will serve as your travel guide to an adventuresome tour through the wilderness of the German language. It shows you how you can, with a machete, hack a path through stubborn grammatical undergrowth, leads you around syntactic pitfalls, shows you where the orthographic quicksand is, and guides you easily over slick stylistic ice.

I get the feeling this is a German version of a book that Ted Bernstein might've written, on language usage.

I've taken liberties with the translation (I had to, since I don't know much German!). Suggestions/corrections welcome!

Cheers...

[UPDATE: Todestal is "death valley," as pointed out by a member of de_translate in this cross post.]