A review by angus_mckeogh
Joe Gould's Teeth by Jill Lepore

2.0

The premise sounded so interesting yet the book was extremely boring. Ostensibly it's about some prolific writer that was supposedly recording an Oral History of the World (which was actually more his personal interactions with other people) that had run out to hundreds of thousands of pages. However, upon reading the book, it's about a certified insane individual that claims he's doing all this writing (and apparently hardly writes at all) who happens to somehow be friendly with some literary characters (i.e. William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound) and ultimately a failed attempt to find this manuscript. It turns into more of a scant biography because again the manuscript can't really be located. Which would be fine; however, almost nothing is known about this guy so the disseminated information about his life ends up being non-existent or hearsay. Disappointing but well-written.