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The Fan Who Knew Too Much
“My kinda brain food.”
 — James Wolcott
“Nothing new in the last year gave me as much pure reading pleasure as
pages in this book. Heilbut ranges over the culture like a madman, but
with a fierce sanity in his eye, debunking myths and erecting new ones.
I finished The Fan Who Knew Too Much wondering how, without it, I’d
ever thought I understood a thing about America in the 20th century.”
— John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead
“Take in his witty, passionate prose, his uncanny blend of scholarship
and reportage, his analytic brilliance and his joie de vivre. You will be
stirred and delighted.”
— Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of On Michael Jackson
“Leapt off the shelf and refused to be put down . . . Everything I know about gospel
music I’ve learned from Anthony Heilbut’s compilations and writings; thanks to his
crazy compendium The Fan Who Knew Too Much, he has now, also, taught me
everything I know about radio soap operas, Aretha Franklin, and homosexuality
in the black church.”
— Lorin Stein, The Paris Review Full Review [PDF]
“Anthony Heilbut has been a guide and a mentor to me. I know of no one
who has the love and depth of knowledge of this extraordinary author.”
— Paul Simon
“The intellectual command and all-over-the-place critical nimbleness on display in
these essays are dazzling — they range from a minibiography of Aretha Franklin
to a reflection on the high-pitched male voice in both pop and classical music to a
celebration of the Austrian novelist Joseph Roth — but it is a nearly 100-page piece
driven by ethical and political urgency that anchors the collection.’”
— Eric Banks, The Chicago TribuneFull Review [PDF]
“At the book’s heart, alongside the title essay, is the extended meditation on
Aretha Franklin . . . the most incisive and illuminating portrait yet drawn . . .
as well as a soul-searching expose on the outing of gays in the black church.
These essays allow Mr. Heilbut to deploy a confessional mode that suits his
elegy for a dying American art . . . [a] most profound study.”
— Eddie Dean, The Wall Street Journal Full Review [PDF]
“[Heilbut] comes at his subjects quietly and humanely, with no agenda
other than to understand . . . There aren’t many fans like Heilbut, with his
cataloguing ardor, his teeming frame of reference and his thirst for experience
. . . Without breaking a sweat, he swings from the plight of modern academia
to the enduring values of the daytime radio serial. He drops in on old favorites
such as Einstein and Hannah Arendt. Throwing them all into a single volume,
he gives us the thread to bind them.”
— Louis Bayard, The Washington PostFull Review [PDF]
“Surprising and deeply moving . . . Rousing and impassioned . . .
Heilbut’s various obsessions are weaved through this deeply personal collection,
giving it the charismatic stamp of a single man and a single mind.”
— Ian Crouch, The Boston Globe Full Review [PDF]
“A real marvel, from start to finish.”
— Samuel G. Freedman, author of The Inheritance
“Heilbut gives gospel music back its gayness . . . Throughout the book, across art
forms, he argues that the heart is with those who have been turned out; that the
center of a community and an art are in fact not at the center, but at the margin.
. . . Heilbut’s generous book demonstrates that no fan can know too much,
or love too much.”
— Noah Berlatsky, Slate Full Review [PDF]
“He knows the score and tells it in a style by turns tragic, bawdy, transporting,
and balefully beautiful . . . With The Fan Heilbut turns his haunted fascination
into a meditative reckoning with the struggle to ‘get over’ for all those who are
exiled among their own people.”
— Douglas Harrison, The Gay and Lesbian ReviewFull Review [PDF]
“Elegant and powerful . . . gloriously detailed . . . Heilbut’s fandom and sharp
critical eye allow for an enthusiastic but well-balanced analysis. Shining a light
on the outcast and downtrodden and telling the truth, Heilbut embodies the
gospel he never believed in.”
— Rashod D. Ollison, Lambda LiteraryFull Review [PDF]
“Nimble, expansive and conveyed with delightful panache . . . Heilbut’s work has
long been distinguished by his gift for taking on polysemous topics and spinning
the reader through them, gracefully and compellingly — teasing out all sorts of
unexpected associations along the way. It’s a pleasure to read intellectual history
where the frame of reference is so unabashedly broad and the weave of ideas so
rewarding to follow . . . It’s an irresistible ride and full of discoveries.”
— George Prochnik, author of In Pursuit of Silence Full Review [PDF]
“Marvelously zesty, erotically frank, assumption-blasting essays . . . take us
on a guided tour unlike any other through the spirals of the psyche.”
— Donna Seaman, BooklistFull Review [PDF]
“The Fan Who Knew Too Much feels like a late Beethoven string quartet,
drawing on a rich career’s obsessions and paying tribute to sources of
inspiration.”
— Jimmy So, The Daily BeastFull Review [PDF]
“A brilliant, one-of-a-kind and immensely challenging book by a brilliant,
one-of-a-kind, immensely challenging American writer.”
— Jeff Simon, The Buffalo NewsFull Review [PDF]
— See Books for More Reviews —
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