What do you think?
Rate this book
Burning Down My Masters' House: A Personal Descent Into Madness That Shook the New York Times
Jayson Blair recounts in detail the events that led to his downfall as a journalist for "The New York Times," as well as his personal journey to make sense of the different pieces of the puzzle.
366 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 4, 2004
11 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Jayson Blair
1 bookJayson Blair is a journalist who was forced to resign from the New York Times in May 2003, after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 16, 2008
What a disappointment! I thought this would be great, seedy, reactionary, hysterical, psychopathic, personality-disordered trash on the level of "Mommie Dearest" or "Monica's Story," but it was just a long boring slog through the rationalizations of a none-too-competent crook. A huge let-down for the schadenfreude crowd.
May 13, 2008
This book is about the downfall of Jayson Blair, the New York Times writer who resigned after writing dozens of front page stories that weren't true.
I'm reading this for a journalism ethics class. It's good because it's making me think about my future career. There have been moments where I wished I could make up some facts just to get a story finished, but that's a dangerous line to cross. I think it's important to keep a line between fiction and non-fiction, even though good storytelling sometimes blurs the line. You have to be careful. I admit that I'm still learning. It's easy to make mistakes when you don't know what you're doing.
I have never plagiarized a story in my life. I think stealing someone else's work is the ultimate violation of ethics. Everyone suffers: the plagiarizer, the plagiarized, the publishers and the audience. I feel pity for Blair and other journalists I know who have stolen people's work. It's such a tragedy.
NOTE: Whoever copy edited this book should be fired. There are so many typos and grammatical errors. It looks like someone ran the spell check and didn't bother to proofread.
I'm reading this for a journalism ethics class. It's good because it's making me think about my future career. There have been moments where I wished I could make up some facts just to get a story finished, but that's a dangerous line to cross. I think it's important to keep a line between fiction and non-fiction, even though good storytelling sometimes blurs the line. You have to be careful. I admit that I'm still learning. It's easy to make mistakes when you don't know what you're doing.
I have never plagiarized a story in my life. I think stealing someone else's work is the ultimate violation of ethics. Everyone suffers: the plagiarizer, the plagiarized, the publishers and the audience. I feel pity for Blair and other journalists I know who have stolen people's work. It's such a tragedy.
NOTE: Whoever copy edited this book should be fired. There are so many typos and grammatical errors. It looks like someone ran the spell check and didn't bother to proofread.
February 24, 2010
To be fair, I would probably give this 2 1/2 stars. This had the potential to be a fascinating story. Unfortunately, the combination of an odd writing style and a lack of aggressive editing make it a difficult read and obscures his message.
November 17, 2010
The guy's a liar. How can I believe this book?
May 14, 2012
The New York Times' 13,000-word story on Blair is avaialable at
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage...
---
Burning Down My Masters' House
Jayson Blair
New Millennium Press Hardcover $31 (Canada)
1/2 (that's a half star, not one out of two)
Offensive.
In a word, that's what this book is. In two: Outrageously obfuscating. Three: Patently self-serving.
You get the idea.
It's what one would expect of New York Times ex-reporter Jayson Blair, who resigned last year after he was caught fabricating and plagiarizing articles. The deception was so earth-shaking that it brought down the Times' top two editors.
But instead of penning an insightful, revelatory exploration of his fraud, Burning Down My Masters' House is a self-congratulatory, empty tragedy in which he casts himself as the victim of alcoholism, drug addiction, childhood sexual abuse, mental illness and racism: the quintet of victimhood that is a virtual guarantee of U.S. talkshow stardom.
"I lied and I lied -- and then I lied some more," chapter one begins. But the ostensible mea culpa rings hollow with the finger-pointing that follows. Blair cites his short stature, refusal to wear a suit, and staple diet of Doritos and fried mozzarella sticks as reasons editors disliked him. He wallows over undiagnosed manic depression. He claims socially-reinforced cocaine use and abuse simultaneously as work aids and inhibitors. He blasts supervisors for being uninterested in his budding career, or too controlling.
Outrageously, Blair blames the objections of one Times editor -- Jonathan Landman, who wrote in an April 2002 memo "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now." -- of bigotry, ignoring multiple editors' concerns about his work.
Conversely, he commends himself on his fabrications, writing "I had been churning out beautifully -- if I do say so myself -- pieces", and argues the volume of stories he wrote made up for copious errors and falsehoods.
In an e-mail to this reporter after I asked him to clarify his position, he claims responsibility for his actions, then immediately backs away, writing that his misdeeds were incidental byproducts of negligence, like a diabetic who neglects to take insulin and crashes the car he is driving.
Although Blair touches on questionable practices at the Times -- such as filing an article from one locale then going to the city the story is in after the fact to justify a dateline -- he mainly recounts the mundane daily routine of reporting; abstractly interesting to non-journalists but not a reason to pay for this book.
Buying this book will further reward Blair for his dishonesty -- the cash advance from his publisher was reportedly six figures, possibly seven. If you must read it, borrow it from a library (or download it from the Internet).
Liars and cheaters ought not prosper.
Saleem Khan
FACTBOX
Blair's New York Times articles and corrections are online at www.nytimes.com/ref/national/BLAIR-AR...
His website is www.jayson-blair.com
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage...
---
Burning Down My Masters' House
Jayson Blair
New Millennium Press Hardcover $31 (Canada)
1/2 (that's a half star, not one out of two)
Offensive.
In a word, that's what this book is. In two: Outrageously obfuscating. Three: Patently self-serving.
You get the idea.
It's what one would expect of New York Times ex-reporter Jayson Blair, who resigned last year after he was caught fabricating and plagiarizing articles. The deception was so earth-shaking that it brought down the Times' top two editors.
But instead of penning an insightful, revelatory exploration of his fraud, Burning Down My Masters' House is a self-congratulatory, empty tragedy in which he casts himself as the victim of alcoholism, drug addiction, childhood sexual abuse, mental illness and racism: the quintet of victimhood that is a virtual guarantee of U.S. talkshow stardom.
"I lied and I lied -- and then I lied some more," chapter one begins. But the ostensible mea culpa rings hollow with the finger-pointing that follows. Blair cites his short stature, refusal to wear a suit, and staple diet of Doritos and fried mozzarella sticks as reasons editors disliked him. He wallows over undiagnosed manic depression. He claims socially-reinforced cocaine use and abuse simultaneously as work aids and inhibitors. He blasts supervisors for being uninterested in his budding career, or too controlling.
Outrageously, Blair blames the objections of one Times editor -- Jonathan Landman, who wrote in an April 2002 memo "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now." -- of bigotry, ignoring multiple editors' concerns about his work.
Conversely, he commends himself on his fabrications, writing "I had been churning out beautifully -- if I do say so myself -- pieces", and argues the volume of stories he wrote made up for copious errors and falsehoods.
In an e-mail to this reporter after I asked him to clarify his position, he claims responsibility for his actions, then immediately backs away, writing that his misdeeds were incidental byproducts of negligence, like a diabetic who neglects to take insulin and crashes the car he is driving.
Although Blair touches on questionable practices at the Times -- such as filing an article from one locale then going to the city the story is in after the fact to justify a dateline -- he mainly recounts the mundane daily routine of reporting; abstractly interesting to non-journalists but not a reason to pay for this book.
Buying this book will further reward Blair for his dishonesty -- the cash advance from his publisher was reportedly six figures, possibly seven. If you must read it, borrow it from a library (or download it from the Internet).
Liars and cheaters ought not prosper.
Saleem Khan
FACTBOX
Blair's New York Times articles and corrections are online at www.nytimes.com/ref/national/BLAIR-AR...
His website is www.jayson-blair.com
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 6, 2012
Just finished "Burning Down My Masters House" by Jayson Blair. So glad that was over with. I found it very difficult to connect with this book or Mr. Blair. The ravings of a lunatic coupled with manic depression. However it did clearly express a man having an ongoing psychotic break with reality with brief periods of calm. Though I understood the dynamics of working for a racist institution like the New York Times I still feel Mr. Blair brought a lot of woe upon himself by deciding to follow the accepted unethical behaviour of his colleagues but kicking it up a notch under the delusion that he would never get caught or if he did some miraculous savior would appear to not only rescue him but provide much needed absolution. Neither miracle occurred and Jayson Blair became ensnared by his own web of lies and deceit.
Yes I do understand that mental illness is a disease but as Mr. Blair outlines in his book he did have times of clarity in which he could have halted down his ill fated path or early on in that path accepted help from his girlfriend and concerned co-workers.
There were chapters in the book that just did not hold my interest and I do admit skipping over the 9/11 chapter. Being a native New Yorker and in the city when the attacks happened I did not wish to relive the horrendous day of Sept. 11th or the following days of terror, shock and grief forever embedded into our collective memories.
However not to knock the book completely Mr. Blair's descriptions on the inner workings of daily life at the New York Times were at times eye opening but not totally beyond the realm of believability. Most Black Americans who have worked or currently work at a predominantly white institution can relate to and understand Jayson Blair's plight and/or sense of entrapment at such a prestigious plantation as is the New York Times.
Over all I'd say this is a book to be borrowed from one's local library and not for addition to ones personal home library.
Yes I do understand that mental illness is a disease but as Mr. Blair outlines in his book he did have times of clarity in which he could have halted down his ill fated path or early on in that path accepted help from his girlfriend and concerned co-workers.
There were chapters in the book that just did not hold my interest and I do admit skipping over the 9/11 chapter. Being a native New Yorker and in the city when the attacks happened I did not wish to relive the horrendous day of Sept. 11th or the following days of terror, shock and grief forever embedded into our collective memories.
However not to knock the book completely Mr. Blair's descriptions on the inner workings of daily life at the New York Times were at times eye opening but not totally beyond the realm of believability. Most Black Americans who have worked or currently work at a predominantly white institution can relate to and understand Jayson Blair's plight and/or sense of entrapment at such a prestigious plantation as is the New York Times.
Over all I'd say this is a book to be borrowed from one's local library and not for addition to ones personal home library.
not-interested
December 2, 2012While I'm not sure if there's an apology in this book somewhere and given the gross extent of his deception, I cannot trust that there is anything in this book that is true either.
May 12, 2015
Picked up this book because thought it had potential to be a great, insightful read, and peer into the inner workings of the NYT.
How incorrect and wrong I was. Writing style, in my view, far too choppy and all over the map to hold interest. To say I was disappointed is an understatement; While I did finish this book, it's long gone from my collection. Let another reader weave through the winding wave of mess this guy wrote and created.
How incorrect and wrong I was. Writing style, in my view, far too choppy and all over the map to hold interest. To say I was disappointed is an understatement; While I did finish this book, it's long gone from my collection. Let another reader weave through the winding wave of mess this guy wrote and created.
April 1, 2017
Rating - 7.3
Good opening on when he is exposed & plenty of interesting factoids on the newspaper publishing industry but the book loses momentum in the middle & and turns in a weak finish w little answers
Also have to view the read w a side of skepticism as Price's has low credibility; However, he skilfully plays the race card within his work & the media & you believe that the indiscreet racism truly exists
Good opening on when he is exposed & plenty of interesting factoids on the newspaper publishing industry but the book loses momentum in the middle & and turns in a weak finish w little answers
Also have to view the read w a side of skepticism as Price's has low credibility; However, he skilfully plays the race card within his work & the media & you believe that the indiscreet racism truly exists
November 10, 2008
Slate says it well: http://www.slate.com/id/2096811/
January 10, 2010
...too many fillers. Still (in light of this real happening) it's on my keeper shelf.
October 6, 2025
Burn Down the Master’s House In an era where the ghosts of American history are being exhumed and rewritten—often with a whitewash—Clay Cane's debut novel, Burn Down the Master’s House, arrives like a Molotov cocktail hurled at the heart of complacency. Set against the brutal backdrop of the antebellum South, this searing work of historical fiction reimagines the forgotten rebellions of enslaved people who refused to bend under the weight of their chains. Drawing from true, long-buried accounts of defiance—poisonings, arsons, and outright uprisings—Cane crafts a narrative that doesn't just recount history; it sets it ablaze, forcing readers to confront the raw, unfiltered fury of those who fought back.The story unfolds in the sweltering fields and shadowed cabins of a Virginia plantation, where a diverse cast of enslaved individuals, inspired by real historical figures, plots a cataclysmic act of resistance: the literal torching of their oppressors' domain. At its core is a ensemble of characters whose lives intersect in profound, heartbreaking ways—a resilient midwife harboring secrets of herbal vengeance, a blacksmith forging more than iron, and a young woman whose quiet rage simmers into revolutionary fire. Cane, a New York Times bestselling author and SiriusXM host known for his incisive nonfiction like The Grift, transitions seamlessly into fiction here, blending propulsive pacing with fragmented, chaotic structure that mirrors the disorientation of rebellion itself. His prose is incendiary: vivid, unflinching, and laced with a moral ambiguity that elevates the book beyond simple heroism. These aren't flawless saints but fully human souls—flawed, desperate, and fiercely alive—grappling with the impossible calculus of survival under bondage.What makes Burn Down the Master’s House a triumph is its unapologetic reclamation of agency. Cane doesn't shy away from the horrors: the lash's bite, the auction block's dehumanization, the systemic rape that propped up an empire built on Black bodies. Yet, he infuses these scenes with a defiant pulse, echoing Audre Lorde's famous dictum that the master's tools will never dismantle his house—hence the title's dual punch of literal arson and metaphorical dismantling of oppressive structures. Themes of radical hope, communal solidarity, and the redemptive power of memory weave through the narrative, making it not just a historical lament but a clarion call for our fractured present. In a time when book bans and revisionist curricula seek to bury these truths, Cane's work feels urgently redemptive, as he himself notes: "This book isn’t just a reckoning with history; it’s a call to action." It's reminiscent of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad in its mythic reimagining of escape, Jesmyn Ward's lyrical grit in Sing, Unburied, Sing, and Percival Everett's sharp subversion in James, but with Cane's unique journalistic edge—meticulously researched, yet pulsing with personal fury.If there's a quibble, it's the occasional overload of historical detail, which can momentarily stall the momentum, as if Cane, in his zeal to honor every buried name, risks tipping from narrative propulsion into documentary weight. But this is a minor ember in a bonfire; it only underscores the novel's depth. Early readers on platforms like Goodreads and NetGalley echo this intensity, praising its "nuanced, morally ambiguous" lens on ancestry and its refusal to offer easy catharsis—because, as one reviewer aptly put it, "Don’t read this book because you hope it might have a happy ending... read it because you refuse to allow yourself to forget the ugly truth."Burn Down the Master’s House demands to be read—not for comfort, but for ignition. Clay Cane has gifted us a bold, necessary torch, illuminating the resilience that history tried to snuff out. In 300 pages of breathtaking scope and timely defiance, it reminds us: some houses must burn before freedom can rise from the ashes. Five out of five flames. This one will haunt, provoke, and, yes, inspire you to burn down a few metaphorical structures of your own.
March 11, 2019
I don't often do audiobooks, but the library didn't have an e-book version and did have the audio, so I gave it a shot. It was an interesting book. Not as much about what we want to hear about - the plagiarism and falsities - but interesting in showing Jayson Blair's history. (It reminded me of "Busted" - a book about the mortgage crisis by a financial crisis who revealed a lot about his personal life without seeming to realize what he was revealing). I also liked Jayson Blair's voice, so I didn't mind listening to the book that way.
Read
June 22, 2023To: Jayson Blair
From: Barbara Andrew
barbara.andrew1@gmail.com
Dear Jayson,
We are Australian authors from Perth, Western Australia who have written a book called 'Forgive'. We’ve come across a marvellous quote from you. We wish to ask for your blessing to use it, and also want to make sure that you’re happy with the attribution.
Could you please provide us with your email address so that we can explain more.
Thank you!
With kind regards,
Barbara and Roger Andrew
barbara.andrew1@gmail.com
From: Barbara Andrew
barbara.andrew1@gmail.com
Dear Jayson,
We are Australian authors from Perth, Western Australia who have written a book called 'Forgive'. We’ve come across a marvellous quote from you. We wish to ask for your blessing to use it, and also want to make sure that you’re happy with the attribution.
Could you please provide us with your email address so that we can explain more.
Thank you!
With kind regards,
Barbara and Roger Andrew
barbara.andrew1@gmail.com
April 15, 2021
Cannot even finish it. Glad I did not buy it.
Read
May 25, 2023Quite interesting.
November 27, 2023
This novel was pretty good at showing what life is like at the NYT, but is filled with what I would consider to be a gigantic ego that overshadows the story.
January 2, 2013
** SPOILER ALERT ** The New York Times' 13,000-word story on Blair is avaialable at
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/us/...
---
My review, published in Metro, June 2004.
Burning Down My Masters' House
Jayson Blair
New Millennium Press Hardcover $31 (Canada)
1/2 (that's a half star, not one out of two)
Offensive.
In a word, that's what this book is. In two: Outrageously obfuscating. Three: Patently self-serving.
You get the idea.
It's what one would expect of New York Times ex-reporter Jayson Blair, who resigned last year after he was caught fabricating and plagiarizing articles. The deception was so earth-shaking that it brought down the Times' top two editors.
But instead of penning an insightful, revelatory exploration of his fraud, Burning Down My Masters' House is a self-congratulatory, empty tragedy in which he casts himself as the victim of alcoholism, drug addiction, childhood sexual abuse, mental illness and racism: the quintet of victimhood that is a virtual guarantee of U.S. talkshow stardom.
"I lied and I lied -- and then I lied some more," chapter one begins. But the ostensible mea culpa rings hollow with the finger-pointing that follows. Blair cites his short stature, refusal to wear a suit, and staple diet of Doritos and fried mozzarella sticks as reasons editors disliked him. He wallows over undiagnosed manic depression. He claims socially-reinforced cocaine use and abuse simultaneously as work aids and inhibitors. He blasts supervisors for being uninterested in his budding career, or too controlling.
Outrageously, Blair blames the objections of one Times editor -- Jonathan Landman, who wrote in an April 2002 memo "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now." -- of bigotry, ignoring multiple editors' concerns about his work.
Conversely, he commends himself on his fabrications, writing "I had been churning out beautifully -- if I do say so myself -- pieces", and argues the volume of stories he wrote made up for copious errors and falsehoods.
In an e-mail to this reporter after I asked him to clarify his position, he claims responsibility for his actions, then immediately backs away, writing that his misdeeds were incidental byproducts of negligence, like a diabetic who neglects to take insulin and crashes the car he is driving.
Although Blair touches on questionable practices at the Times -- such as filing an article from one locale then going to the city the story is in after the fact to justify a dateline -- he mainly recounts the mundane daily routine of reporting; abstractly interesting to non-journalists but not a reason to pay for this book.
Buying this book will further reward Blair for his dishonesty -- the cash advance from his publisher was reportedly six figures, possibly seven. If you must read it, borrow it from a library (or download it from the Internet).
Liars and cheaters ought not prosper.
Saleem Khan
FACTBOX
Blair's New York Times articles and corrections are online at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/national/B...
His website is www.jayson-blair.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/us/...
---
My review, published in Metro, June 2004.
Burning Down My Masters' House
Jayson Blair
New Millennium Press Hardcover $31 (Canada)
1/2 (that's a half star, not one out of two)
Offensive.
In a word, that's what this book is. In two: Outrageously obfuscating. Three: Patently self-serving.
You get the idea.
It's what one would expect of New York Times ex-reporter Jayson Blair, who resigned last year after he was caught fabricating and plagiarizing articles. The deception was so earth-shaking that it brought down the Times' top two editors.
But instead of penning an insightful, revelatory exploration of his fraud, Burning Down My Masters' House is a self-congratulatory, empty tragedy in which he casts himself as the victim of alcoholism, drug addiction, childhood sexual abuse, mental illness and racism: the quintet of victimhood that is a virtual guarantee of U.S. talkshow stardom.
"I lied and I lied -- and then I lied some more," chapter one begins. But the ostensible mea culpa rings hollow with the finger-pointing that follows. Blair cites his short stature, refusal to wear a suit, and staple diet of Doritos and fried mozzarella sticks as reasons editors disliked him. He wallows over undiagnosed manic depression. He claims socially-reinforced cocaine use and abuse simultaneously as work aids and inhibitors. He blasts supervisors for being uninterested in his budding career, or too controlling.
Outrageously, Blair blames the objections of one Times editor -- Jonathan Landman, who wrote in an April 2002 memo "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now." -- of bigotry, ignoring multiple editors' concerns about his work.
Conversely, he commends himself on his fabrications, writing "I had been churning out beautifully -- if I do say so myself -- pieces", and argues the volume of stories he wrote made up for copious errors and falsehoods.
In an e-mail to this reporter after I asked him to clarify his position, he claims responsibility for his actions, then immediately backs away, writing that his misdeeds were incidental byproducts of negligence, like a diabetic who neglects to take insulin and crashes the car he is driving.
Although Blair touches on questionable practices at the Times -- such as filing an article from one locale then going to the city the story is in after the fact to justify a dateline -- he mainly recounts the mundane daily routine of reporting; abstractly interesting to non-journalists but not a reason to pay for this book.
Buying this book will further reward Blair for his dishonesty -- the cash advance from his publisher was reportedly six figures, possibly seven. If you must read it, borrow it from a library (or download it from the Internet).
Liars and cheaters ought not prosper.
Saleem Khan
FACTBOX
Blair's New York Times articles and corrections are online at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/national/B...
His website is www.jayson-blair.com
March 17, 2008
This is the single greatest book ever written. Viva Jayson!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews