Susan Choi writes in The Yale Review, “The Fact Checker is a workplace comedy, a trivia-rich love letter to New York, and, to top it all off, nicely written, which is more of a rare treat these days than it should be…. Perhaps what I most ached for while reading Kelley’s book wasn’t a simpler world than the one we live in now but a simpler feeling, which Kelley captures exactly: the simple feeling of liking to learn new things, and liking to meet new people who might teach you new things. The simple feeling that “known unknowns” are the right place to start but far from the end of the story.”
Isabel Ruehl writes in LitHub, “The novel has been described as ‘laugh-out-loud,’ yet it’s surprisingly profound, with no easy lessons as meaning slips through its protagonist’s grasp. On the one hand, resistance to literary devices is tragic: the Fact Checker became overwhelmed by the chaos of reality, and maybe some metaphor would have kept the madness at bay”
Alexandra Jacobs writes, in The NY Times, “‘The Fact Checker’ argues for a heightened sensitivity to the brutality of the food chain… But it’s also about the looming gig economy, the division of labor in the field of writing as well as potatoes. Not for nothing do we now refer to ‘content farms.’”
Nick Ripatrozone writes in the Bulwark, “Kelley’s novel arrives in a world wherein imagining American culture as characterized by a foundational acceptance of verifiable facts feels either anachronistic or terribly naïve… This makes The Fact Checker a book that is intensely aware of its time. “
Heller McAlpin writes, “By engaging with what the author calls ‘thickets of untruth,’ this book could not be more timely … The Fact Checker lands as a clever caper not just about sometimes elusive truths, but also about ‘the paralysis of encyclopedic doubt.’”
Former New Yorker fact checker Austin Kelley on his novel and being inspired by real life
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