Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News

Because I have much respect for Kevin Young as a poet and intellectual, I was wholly disappointed with Bunk. This book is a mess. Apparently, the publisher gave Mr. Young carte blanche, assuming—given his good reputation—that he knew what he was doing.The book reads mostly like a survey of every hoax, scam, con, fraud, and boondoggle fabricated in America. Young heaps upon us stacks and stacks of examples that catalogue this history of “bunk.” But beyond cataloguing these examples, too many of them in minute detail, it remains unclear what Young is trying to argue: there is no overarching thesis. As a result, Young rambles, bushwhacks, digresses, regroups, repeats (himself), then sets off again, tediously picking apart example upon example with no apparent focus other than to show that he’s a five-star academic.Perhaps the silliest digression occurs when, in discussing the denial of humanity to persons of color--underscored by the protest, “Are we not men?”—Young attempts to draw a connection to D-E-V-O, the 1980s new wave band, who used the same question in one of their songs, “Jocko Homo.” But D-E-V-0 was talking about the dehumanization of robotics and automation, a theme that framed their entire act. In other words, as Young rakes in every pop-cultural reference he can conjure, he betrays an insecurity that ill-serves his project.Much of the time Young talks of race, as we would expect of a writer so deeply invested issues of race. But, again and again, he’s stating the obvious: America has always been a profoundly racist country. We know that. Not once, in his many explications of racism, does he offer a surprise or a penetrating insight that we can pursue to an enlightened point.And then: much of the time he doesn’t talk of race, as when he’s recounting Clifford Irving’s fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Somewhere underneath all of this, perhaps Young is striving to show that “bunk” is quintessentially American, lying at the heart of American confidence and bravado? It’s never clear because Young is never definitive. And so the reader is left wondering, What’s this about?Repeatedly, Young mentions “The Age of Euphemism,” a topic it seems he’s working up to, but then he never delivers. Only in the final chapter, “Coda,” does he explain what this is and even then the chapter is little more than fragments: notes on the book he should have written. His point seems to be that the all-American hoax has devolved into something toxic. He writes, “Part of the pleasure of the nineteenth century’s [hoaxes] . . . was finding oneself fooled …; the humbug and the audience often proved unlikely yet likable collaborators.” Really? After chapters of explication to make clear the thoroughly abusive treatment of people of color in American sideshows, scams, and so on, this is the conclusion Young would offer?As for the Age of Euphemism, isn’t ours more the Age of Hyperbole, as conspiracy mongers and incendiary divisionists shout that the sky is falling? that all immigrants are criminals? that all progressives are mobsters? that our nation should build walls and more bombs to protect itself from an invidious world?Young’s best chapter is “Blacker Than Thou,” about Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who masqueraded as black (and in the process appropriated black culture for personal gain). Young is thoroughly present in this chapter, personal and personable, and you can see why it was published as a separate essay in the anthology, The Fire This Time. I sighed with relief when I got to this chapter and was tempted to say, “Where have you been, man?” Had Young dropped the academic voice he favors for most of the book—burdened as it is with sweeping pronouncements and convoluted connections—and instead, spoke more directly and more honestly, as he does in this chapter, he might have made Bunk worth the reader’s time.

This book is mildly interesting, if poorly organized and rambling, on the topic it is purportedly written - that being hoaxes, comment, fake news, and the like from the 1800s to the present day in America. As a history buff with a honors degree in the subject I enjoy reading studies of Americana.So I was not expecting to instead get this rambling list of hoaxes here and there with illogical explanations of how all hoaxes are basically racism perpetrated by white people. The moon hoax in the Sun? Antiblack racism. The fairy photo hoax? Racist. Fake child prodigies? Racist. While there are examples of actual racism in the book, by a quarter of the way through the extreme reaching to call everything in sight racist leaves me no doubt where the rest of this dismal book is going and I have no interest in finishing.

An interesting book with a worthwhile purpose. Through startling examples the connection between race stereotypes and hoaxes is explored. There are two main problems: marketing and writing. The advertising for the book does not give a good indication of the material within. The writing is the major problem. Plodding and meandering, it is difficult even divine what the real purpose of many entire paragraphs are. A difficult book to read, it is a like running marathon in a rainstorm with a headwind. Needed a good editor.

Interesting read and I would certainly recommend it. My only issues are that I wish we were given more background on the various hoaxes Mr. Young talks about. It seems as though at times he is slightly tone deaf to his audience, or that audience must he a very specific group with a very specific, almost niche, knowledge base.(or a clever method of hoarding us into buying what he is selling, banking on the fact that most of us won't go and do our own research on these various hoaxes, so we haven't choice but to believe him at his word.)I found his analysis of the hoax and its application in current events compelling for the most part but then he slips into what I considered to be a rather preachy, beating his opinions over the reader's head. I found some of his conclusions to be a hit of a stretch. Taking these leaps of faith with him us exhaustIng after a while which as a result diminishes my desire yo buy his analysis.The book is well researched, I just felt like Mr. Young is very impressed with himself and his knowledge/intellect/analytical prowess that I just wanted him to come back to Earth and stop trying to impress us. We bought your book guy, its cool, we get it, you are smart. But, give it a whirl. It's a fascinating analysis of how far we ve not gone.

Bought this as a gift. He loved it and thanked me when I gave it to him and again after he listened to it.

mistake by me for buying book

A mishmash of crap written in an orgy of words. A "true" hoax of a supposed book. Insane to read. Not recommended unless you are a masochistic schizophrenic.

This book has warn me out! What an incredible read. I would have never known the substance would be what it is. It is a must read.

I wanted to read this book. It's a topic I find both interesting and fun.But this is not a book for information and/or entertainment. It's a thesis born of academia. Endless quotes, excessively long sentences, and squllions of added words that do nothing other than over complicate and reduce readability. Had Mr Young engaged an editor, and which I suspect would have cropped a third away, then this could have been a good book.I got through 10%, and skimmed the rest, but I just couldn't get further. I felt like I was being punished.Hey ho.

Good idea for a book, but ruined by pretentious prose, undisciplined moralizing, and wordiness. A real bore and not worth the time or money.

I have only read about 10% so far. Quite please with the content and writing up to this point.

Pretentious and long-winded. I was unable to get beyond the first, impenetrable chapter. The author seemed to be trying to earn academic respect by making his account of some fascinating material almost unreadable. Definitely not recommended.

unreadable