A review by arilaurel
Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers by Joel Whitney

4.0

More than a surface level look at the nuts and bolts of a certain type of propaganda. Finks shows how prestige is built and backed, how creative writing is linked to foreign aid, war, and imperialism, all to maintain US hegemony. Lots of revolutionary names we're all familiar with, and lots of literary names we're all familiar with, but with political connections between them that I wasn't deeply aware of. What motivated me to pick it up in the first place is my experience in the creative writing MFA workshop, and the knowledge that the CIA created the Iowa Writers Program and the creative writing MFA in order to develop and bolster American literature and the Great American Novel, so I was a little disappointed that the book didn't include info about this. But there was still plenty here, and it was thorough. Sometimes the book felt academic and was harder for me to get through (which is why it took so long), but I got something out of each chapter.