Fakers: Hoaxers, Con Artists, Counterfeiters, and Other Great Pretenders

Engagingly written, the first section of the book into Paul Maliszewski's own writings is both sad and amusing - amusing because so many of the examples he gives are obviously satirical, sad because these articles were believed due to the expectations of their readers and publishers.

The entire book is a tribute to the fraud and fakeries of phony journalism and writing (from deliberate misrepresentation to lazy fact checking and plagiarism which allows the internet-moderated version of gossip and 'chinese whispers' to bring 'reality' to what isn't) to some examples ranging from art fraud to plain cons. Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?) the result seems to be a bland recitation rather than a study - an impression show more strengthened by the lack of any kind of bibliography (or even a short index).

The book is a light, generalist introduction to the field (as it were) , but if you are interested in more detailed who/when/where/why you'll want to delve further and I, at least, was left feeling mildly dissatisfied. A read for a day when concentration is low. show less

Some essays were interesting, but there were too many that did not hold my interest.