While the overall result sometimes lacks the intrigue or the ferocious momentum of a good second- or thirdhand yarn, You Didn’t Hear This From Me raises thoughtful questions about an under-examined topic, and offers some delights and epiphanies along the way ... The questions that drive McKinney’s investigation of a universal human habit are wide-ranging ... To many of these, McKinney finds satisfying answers, or at least compelling arguments.
Contains some amusing historical accounts ... The book is laden with references to very recent history; topics that were obviously the talk of le tout internet at the time of writing but already feel dated ... I...lost track of what the point was ... Much juicier are the anonymous anecdotes and vignettes slipped between chapters, which serve to illustrate how gossip is used in real life ... The essays don’t dig deep enough into her ambivalence about gossip to come away with any big ideas.
We get sprinklings of science: citations of philosophers, anthropologists, neuroscientists, ethicists ... McKinney’s big point is that gossip is a fundamentally human behavior, and she does not tire of making it ... Gossip is a big topic, and McKinney is not afraid to go broad with it. She tosses off sweeping claims ... McKinney sounds like the kind of person who plagued her as a young gossiper: a scold.
The richest part of You Didn’t Hear This From Me is Ms. McKinney’s account of how she first fell in love with gossip ... It is when Ms. McKinney tries to broaden her thesis to make a case for gossip’s force as a social good that her argument starts to snag and stumble ... The problem with Ms. McKinney’s book is that it takes a loosely associational approach to the subject that starts to share many of the less desirable characteristics of gossip ... Reads as a buffet of tasty tidbits rather than a sustained inquiry into the rights and wrongs of spilling the tea.
Well-researched, passionate ... Her voice is smart and funny, and her arguments for considering gossip valuable and meaningful are compelling and clearly heartfelt.
The result is a work that, despite some intriguing observations, would have landed with more impact in a more condensed format. A perceptive, earnestly documented, yet unnecessarily sprawling exploration of gossip.
Perceptive ... McKinney’s penetrating analysis uncovers the hidden depths and overlooked benefits of gossip. This will give readers plenty to talk about.
