Somebody Told Me:
One Man’s Unexpected Journey Down the Rabbit Hole of Lies, Trolls, and Conspiracies
by Danny Wallace (Globe Pequot)
The book is the author’s dive into What’s Wrong With This World, specifically through the lens of conspiracy theory and other bad ideas. It has the vibe of a standup routine. The book mixes interview with anecdote, occasionally joined up as one, as the author talks to various people in the disinformation space: creators, opponents, researchers, and victims. It has something of a frame narrative relating to communications between the author’s late father and a purported chance encounter in China that sends the author into his own pitfall of conspiratorial thinking.
There is great material here, but the juice is not worth the squeeze. I almost bailed on the book after one too many cold takes and comments that reflected a surface level understanding of a situation. But there are great turns here. In particular, the author investigates the grifter economy of the rightward shift of various personalities, and does provide some novelty on the loneliness problem, its causes and effects. There are also a few great interviews, often anonymous, that are impressive gets and contain neat perspectives. And the framing device closes out. Maybe not well, but it does close out.
The writing is fine. The comedy is welcome, but feels nominal at points. I think it could have done better with a narrower range of topics, but the neat bits there are neat.
My thanks to the author, Danny Wallace, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Globe Pequot, for making the ARC available to me.
CITATION HEEDED 