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69 reviews for:
Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News
Kevin Young
3.34 AVERAGE
69 reviews for:
Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News
Kevin Young
3.34 AVERAGE
funny
informative
medium-paced
I hate not finishing books, but I gave this one a hundred pages and just couldn’t go on. It takes a special talent to take a fascinating subject and apply a compelling argument and still end up with such a dull, disjointed, unsupported read.
I couldn't get into this one. It was dry and academic, without any interesting aspects. Somehow they made this crazy topic boring.
Barely started because this read more like an academic paper to me than a fun nonfiction book where you learn of a ton of interesting stuff.
I started and stopped this a few times; it was smart and the author had an honest curiosity about his topic, but towards the end it started to seem more like a litany than a narrative. I enjoyed the book but it wouldn't be something I'd be likely to re-read or reference.
While I found this compulsive reading, this is a dense book which required a bit of thinking between sections. Young dives straight into his topic from the first chapter without any kind of overview/introduction and asks readers to find their bearings as he swiftly moves into his first hoax. Some of the other reviews on Goodreads seem upset that this is not a history book and I don't think it suggests it will be? Young reviews hundreds of hoaxes but clearly his intention is analysis and rumination, not simply recitation of fact. His ideas here - about the racial underbelly of lies and fakery in the United States - are constantly shuffled together to show new resonances of ideas previously explored. Stories recur and return with new valences. I quite enjoyed this and cannot wait to read The Grey Album
I had a hard time rating this book. I liked some sections and I slogged through others. I think the premise of the book was initially interesting, though I think the title is a bit misleading. Bunk is not really about the truth or rise of hoaxes, etc. Instead, Bunk seems focused on the idea that pretty much every hoax in American history (and some in British history) is related to race and/or sex. This would also have been an interesting premise, though it hurt my initial perceptions of the book because it seemed like race was being brought in continually and, in some spaces (such as with James Frey), with a significant stretch in the connection. The book also suffers from what seems to be a preference for literary style over substance. There is substantial repetition of points and arguments while most of the identified hoaxes are identified without significant explanation of the hoax itself or the surrounding circumstances/reactions. The poetic style of the writing also led to difficulty in getting at the point of various sections. Ultimately, I think the style of the book, and the title's slightly inaccurate nature, made this book less enjoyable than I expected it to be.
A twenty-hour audiobook and it FEELS like it. This book is incredibly well researched, structured, and deep. Deep! Essentially 200 years of hoaxes and I still feel like more could be said. Young was funny, very insightful (that research led to some interesting revelations and connections he doesn't pause too hard on), and came to worthwhile conclusions about hoaxes and race, connections I had not thought of but will think on for a while. I can't give this a perfect score, but it's close, it's a classic read, one that should be educationally assigned, and one I can see living on for a while.
As much as I hate the implications of this book, I loved the book itself. Young has brought me face to face with the racism that is part of the air we breathe in America, just as it most likely is everywhere. His book is filled with fascinating historical examples of "untruths" that some of us manage to perpetrate on others. His research is impeccable.
Perhaps because he is a poet, I sometimes had to strain to catch the connections he was making. Sometimes I found them difficult to follow. I don't think racism itself is usually the overt intent of people who commit these acts. Sometimes these people are psychopaths who are merely out to game the system; sometimes they are mentally ill. But the fact remains, their "bunk" could not succeed if the wider society were not racist.
He made me think and see things in a different way. I will be more conscious of my own reactions and thoughts due to this book. That is no small accomplishment for a writer to achieve.
Perhaps because he is a poet, I sometimes had to strain to catch the connections he was making. Sometimes I found them difficult to follow. I don't think racism itself is usually the overt intent of people who commit these acts. Sometimes these people are psychopaths who are merely out to game the system; sometimes they are mentally ill. But the fact remains, their "bunk" could not succeed if the wider society were not racist.
He made me think and see things in a different way. I will be more conscious of my own reactions and thoughts due to this book. That is no small accomplishment for a writer to achieve.
This book was a fascinating and necessary exploration into how hoaxes use and abuse race, gender, and stereotypes. I did struggle with finishing this book. It is written in a very academic and verbose voice that, while not unwelcome, made getting through it a bit of a trial. Young is an excellent writer, and I can appreciate the herculean effort of compiling material from less-than-savory sources. The text is richly entwined with themes of social justice, challenging one's prejudices and worldviews, and a healthy dose of information literacy and critical thinking.