Survivor and the Endless Gaze

By: Sallie Tisdale

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

The author of the acclaimed Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them) brings “her singular sensibility, her genius for language, her love of our deeply imperfect world” (Karen Karbo, author of In Praise of Difficult Women) to this insightful exploration of reality TV and the shifting definitions of truth in America.

What is the truth?

In a world of fake news and rampant conspiracy theories, the nature of truth has increasingly blurry borders. In this clever and timely cultural commentary, award-winning author Sallie Tisdale tackles this issue by framing it in a familiar way—reality TV, particularly the long-running CBS show Survivor.

With humor and in-depth superfan analysis, Tisdale explores the distinction between suspended disbelief and true authenticity both in how we watch shows like Survivor, and in how we perceive the world around us. With her “bold and wise, galvanizing and grounding” (Chloe Caldwell, author of I’ll Tell You in Person) writing, Tisdale has created an unputdownable, thoroughly entertaining, and groundbreaking book that we will be talking about for years to come.

infinitely interesting

I loved the reader - the story was engaging and included a lot of facts not known before.

Survivor deep dive

If you are looking for a book that analyzes all aspects of Survivor, you’ll like this book. If you are looking for a book that digs more into the psychology of lying and related trends, this is probably not the book. I was looking for the latter, but still generally enjoyed the book. However by the time I was three quarters of the way through it started to feel like I was at a party with someone who was just going on and on about a single topic, and I was looking for a way to escape the conversation.

Do not suggest unless you love listening to complaining & judgement for hours on end

If you love Survivor, then I do not suggest this book. If you hate Survivor, then I do not suggest this book. If you love listening to a middle-aged Karen complain about everyone and everything about a show that is supposedly interesting enough for her to write a book about, then this one’s for you. Such a shame that I wasted money on this. It is so negative and simply annoying. Half is just a recap of Survivor episode and the other half is a pessimistic outlook on the entire franchise and everything about it.