Fake it : fictions of forgery /

Osteen (Loyola Univ., Maryland) considers a wide range of "fakes" (broadly understood) committed or recounted by six writers and one filmmaker from the 18th century to the present: Thomas Chatterton, William Henry Ireland, Peter Carey, Percival Everett, William Gaddis, Orson Welles, and Siri Hustvedt. The book is not driven by an argument, but "fifteen theses" spelled out in the introduction summarize the lessons readers learn from the case studies. It is not certain whether any of the 15 are, strictly speaking, true--at least those that contain words such as always instead of often--but they are provocative. Asking productive questions, in fact, is Osteen's main strength; providing convincing answers does not seem to be a priority. For the pre-20th-century material, Osteen leans too hard on modern secondary sources, not always academically rigorous, and he picks up some of their factual errors. But though the historical scholarship is sometimes lacking, the close readings are consistently insightful and rewarding, and the prose manages to be both accessible and formally experimental at the same time. Fake It is engaging and stimulating. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Jack Lynch, Rutgers University--Newark