Review by Choice Review
Once in a while a book comes along that crystallizes some aspect of mundane, everyday experience so well that one is forced to step back from and view activities with new clarity. This is such a book. Both authors are sociologists at Northeastern University. Levin and Arluke have explored the ways in which gossip, in all its forms, plays a significant and binding role in American social life. As one might expect, the book deals with commercialized forms of gossip, namely the supermarket tabloids, and their fascinating and occasionally frustrating ways of dealing with information about people in the limelight. Yet the book also treats more ``acceptable'' forms of gossip that are used to welcome a new resident to a community, to educate a new employee about the schemers in the workplace, or to comfort a victim of some unexpected event. Indeed, gossip is not only the ``idle talk'' of the malicious, but is also a socially necessary practice with its own conventions, structures, and uses. Amid a wealth of examples, from Chappaquiddick to Carol Burnett to interviews with those who make their living reporting gossip, the authors unveil the meaning of gossip in a study that is both riveting and intelligent. Public and undergraduate libraries.-C.A. Pressler, Saint Mary's College, Ind.
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
