Stanley Crouch uses his experience as a columnist, novelist, essayist, and television commentator to explore the subject of authenticity in music, writing, and theater, as well as political venues. Using such celebrities as Quentin Tarantino, Michael Jackson, Ernest Hemmingway, and others, he explores the genuiness of their works and how they relate to our perceptions of authenticity in their respective genres and how those perceptions fashion our beliefs and ideologies.