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.
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.
