95 Books In 2006, George W. Bush read 95 books. We will do better.

Exhaustive, erudite, fascinating read of the notion of subjectivity and how it is produced, in a thorough examination of non-fiction and fiction works from the 1950’s (Rebel Without a Cause, The Catcher in the Rye) through to the end of the century (Jerry Maguire, Six Degrees of Separation.) Cheever works through cultural conceptions of authenticity in chapters examining: Teenagers, Madness/Depression Narratives, Serial Killers, Jewishness, Performativity and the Corporate Narrative, and Collage as “the art form of the twentieth century.” Intensively researched and intellectually sound, Real Phonies gives a compelling picture of North American cultural mores and the production of the individual vis a vis the group. 

My only tiny quibble with the book was—and I assume the book was adapted from a dissertation—the continual summation of what had been told and what was yet to come. (The last chapter blah blah blah, this chapter blah blah blah, etc.) This might be necessary in an academic work, but as a mass market paperback, these unnecessary summaries slowed down the reading.

Beyond that, Real Phonies is a marvelous discourse on the self. Highly recommend.

-Nikki Reimer