Swamplandia by Karen Russell

Swamplandia by Karen Russell

The Bigtrees have grown up in the Southwest tip of Florida--in the Ten Thousand Islands--where they have run a unique theme park, Swamplandia. With the exception of Ossie, all of the family members are alligator wrestlers. The star attraction is Ava's mother who dives in a pool of seths, their pet name for alligators.

Their successful business collapses when their star dies of cancer, leaving the business in debt.

Poor Ava Bigtree has been abandoned by her mother; her father; her brother; and her sister, who eloped with a ghost.

No wonder she befriends the Bird Man and jumps at the chance to find Ossie in the Underworld, which coincidently is in the Florida swamplands.

Ava mostly rescues herself by running away from a dangerous situation and the alligator infested swamp. The second rescue in which Kiwi Bigtree, navigating a plane for the first time, rescues Osceola strains credulity. The reunion of the Bigtrees, however, at the Bowl-a-Bed hotel is too good to miss.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Like a literary archaeological expedition, this sparkling crime novel opens up numerous layers of reality. Nick is the ultimate all-American boy and Amy is the coolest girl around. Reading their accounts gives you that view but then each of them offers their own contrasting view. As it turns out, Amy's diaries were not truthful and Nick's persona is an act. Amy has a few dark secrets and the all-American boy is not as perfect as he seems. Nick looks and act suspicious but did he kill Amy and was she pregnant?

Nick and Amy, who both believe they are New York sophisticates, play complicated mind games and there's nothing more fascinating than a novel that pull off that well. Amy gives her spouse a scavenger hunt each year on their anniversary which always leads to quarrels and hurt feelings. Nick believes that on his 5th anniversary Amy has outdone herself, created an elaborate scavenger hunt, gone into hiding and framed him for her murder. The more he finds out about Amy's past lovers, the made-up testimonies, and broken friendships, the more he believes she is a sociopath who has framed him.

Other novels that use mind games:
The Bellwether Revivials by Benjamin Wood

Jonah Lehrer's Downfall and the Boy Who Cried Wolf



How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

 In folklore, a boy cries "Wolf" and loses all credibility. No one believes him the next time he cries "Wolf"  which leads inexorably to him be eaten up.

The boy who cried wolf is a fitting analogy for Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust was a Neuroscientist, How We Decide, and Imagine.

Best-selling author and wunderkind journalist has been called out for self-plagiarizing: that is duplicating material and submitting it to two competing news agencies. Five of Lehrer's New Yorker posts now come with editorial notes regretting "duplication" of material published earlier. Unfortunately for Lehrer, the postings are not a re-spin or an update but an almost verbatim duplication of earlier material.

Lehrer's book Imagine is even more problematic as it contains undocumented quotations and, as it turns out, completely fabricated quotations ascribed to the singer Bob Dylan.

Publisher, Harcourt-Mifflin, has pulled Imagine largely because of the fabricated Dylan quotations.

In How We Decide, an earlier work, Lehrer quotes quarterback, Tom Brady; Plato; Thomas Jefferson; Sigmund Freud; Francisco Goya; MIT professor, Marvin Minsky; neurologist, Antonio Damasio; David Hume; Days of Our Lives director, Herb Stein; NYU neuroscientist, Joseph LeDoux; American philosopher, William James, and many others.

Naturally, any reader would now want to know if any of these quotations were fabricated. Lehrer's publisher Harcourt-Mifflin is reportedly reviewing all of  his books.
As it turns out, Lehrer has fabricated more than just the Dylan quotations. Kevin Breen in The Skeptical Libertarian exposes yet another falsehood.

In Imagine Lehrer describes Teller of the magic duo, Penn and Teller, as ready to quit magic in the early eighties. He quotes Teller as saying, "I was ready to go back home and become a high-school Latin teacher."

Breen of The Skeptical Libertarian tracks Teller down in Las Vegas who purports he never gave Lehrer the quote abou being ready to give up.

The false Teller quote is actually worst than the fabricated Dylan quotations. The Dylan quotations, while false, are not completely out of character with the man.

If you create something that is utterly false (a Wolf), inevitably you will lose credibility. It remains to be seen whether Lehrer's reputation or personal brand will survive but the odds are against him--as they should be.