THE SECRET HISTORY OF BIGFOOT: Field Notes on a North American Monster, by John O’ConnorWhy do Americans need Bigfoot? This question propels John O’Connor’s “Secret History of Bigfoot,” a farrago of participatory journalism, anthropological speculation, pop-culture parentheticals and broadsides against Donald Trump that often seems stuck together by sap and tar. Officially O’Connor was seeking Bigfoot — or at least the enduring wellspring of faith in Bigfoot, which struck him as just as elusive. Like a forty-niner cutting ties with the uptight Victorians, O’Connor sought instead “wild places” where men are men, go unmasked and hope for moral redemption by Sasquatch. A stay-at-home dad in Cambridge, Mass., he became, during lockdown, a literal stay-at-home dad.

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Persons: John O’Connor, John O’Connor’s, Donald Trump, O’Connor, Covid, “ wokesters, irked, he’s, ” Locations: American, Antarctica, O’Connor, Cambridge, Washington, Boston