Gossip

Epstein traces the history of gossip, its various manifestations, and the reasons why humans are so engaged in it--to the extent that there is even a gossip industry. Arthur Morey delivers a clear and uncomplicated narration. He deftly teases out emphasis and nuance as Epstein plunges into issues of innuendo, subtlety, and the doublespeak that can accompany gossip. But even though his voice and performance are agreeable, the audiobook doesn't sound fully realized. Epstein stocks his prose with jokes and asides that Morey doesn't utilize to their full potential. The asides and jokes are meant to some degree to replicate gossip itself, and Morey's straight narration of them detracts from the reading. L.E. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

June 6, 2011
Both educational and dangerous, a form of news and idle speculationâthe many facets and history of gossip are explored by Epstein (Snobbery). He explores the transition from private gossip ("The only thing missing from the Garden of Eden was a third person for Adam and Eve to gossip about") to "the professionalism of gossip" with the printing press and changes wrought by the Internet, which has obliterated the divide between "private and public spheres." Delectable firsthand anecdotes and portraits of "great gossips of the Western world"âSaint-Simon, Walter Winchell, Barbara Walters (who asks "the most tasteless questions of famous people... who themselves tasteless enough to answer her"), and Tina Brown (who makes "debased interest, misplaced curiosity, and voyeuristic emotion seem not tacky but perfectly all right, fun, smart") add to the pleasures of this serious appraisal. Readers who share Epstein's concern about gossip's power "to invade privacy, to wreck lives" and his reluctance to wholly condemn it "because I enjoy it too much" will find him disquieting and delightful.