Too Good to be True: the Colossal Book of Urban Legends

Folklore, Oct, 2002 by Jacqueline Simpson

By Jan Harold Brunvand. New York and London, W. W. Norton, 1999. 480 pp. Illus. US$29.95/CDN$42.00. ISBN 0-393-04734-2

Colossal this book certainly is. About 210 tales are listed in the index, and since most are given in two or three different versions and there are also shorter references to related items of story or belief, the amount of material on display is considerable. Although Brunvand does not here give the detailed commentaries and accumulation of parallel instances that were a feature of his classic books, he always indicates his source (with date), and briefly outlines the history and distribution of the story type. The sources used are mainly either extracts from letters sent to him by readers of his own books and newspaper columns, or items from press and television; he also reproduces some relevant cartoons, and various chain letters, photocopied "warnings," and so on. Thematic links are made clear by the way the material is arranged under chapter headings.

Too Good to be True offers an excellent selection of texts for most--quite possibly all--urban legends so far recorded in America, with cross-references to other English-speaking countries. It will therefore be a very handy work of reference for students of narrative, and a lively source of entertainment for the general reader--and indeed for scholars in their carefree moments.

Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore Society