Kanye West’s influence on today’s popular culture is undeniable. His music and lyrics, personal life, and public actions resonate within our celebrity- and spectacle-obsessed American psyche. West’s public image represents a unique catalyst for discussions of race, art, origin stories, fantasy, and the concept of “celebrity.” In Mr. West, Sarah Blake engages pop culture as a strange, complicated presence that reveals some unsettling truths about American society, and ourselves.