A Brief Review of Tarpley Hitt's "Barbie Land: The Unauthorized History" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - August 10, 2026 - As I began reading Barbie Land: The Unauthorized History (2025) by Tarpley Hitt, it didn’t take long for me to lament, “Oh no! Barbie is a product of the evil empire? Say it isn’t so!” The founders of Mattel, Inc., Harold Matson and husband-and-wife duo Elliot and Ruth Handler, preferred a romanticized origin story for Barbie, claiming the iconic doll—named after the Handlers’ daughter—was simply dreamed up in a garage in El Segundo, California, out of a pure love for toy making. Much of that is true; however, from the doll’s early development to its debut in 1959 to the present moment, the multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company continues to be ruthlessly competitive, secretive, and prolifically litigious. In other words, the real origin story will shock you as it did me.

Barbie Land reads more like a book on how to build a successful empire by doing whatever it takes—ethical or not—to become the shrewdest, meanest shark in the shark tank. More than once, I had to remind myself I was reading about a company that makes plastic dolls for little girls and not weapon systems for the Pentagon! As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one who thought Mattel’s take-no-prisoners business model was a blueprint for crushing competition and establishing market dominance. Not only did other toy manufacturers reorganize to emulate Mattel’s callous business practices but also companies from vastly different industries, many of which are still in operation today. The maker of Barbie was more than a maverick innovator of toys; it was a trailblazer in its use of television advertising, focus groups, behavioral economics, intellectual property protections, and horizontal acquisitions.

I appreciate the effort Tarpley Hitt put into Barbie Land, but it left me unsettled and somewhat depressed. It merely confirmed my view that today’s top American businesses are driven solely by profit, obsessed with growth, and completely unrestrained by morality. Now I can’t look at a Barbie doll without imagining it with a set of razor-sharp shark teeth.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

 

NEW SHORT STORY: "Reclaiming Charity" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art) is a 31-page novella about walking away from institutionalized benevolence.

Nampa, Idaho - August 1, 2026 - More than a decade ago, the corporate worshippers of the god of profit convinced us we needed a phone and a dating app, charging $39.99 per month, to access love. Unbelievably, instead of turning our backs on yet another for-profit business model shamelessly crafted to cash in on what comes naturally to most people, we embraced it like mindless lemmings, including me. I’ve long since deleted my dating profiles, dismissing the faceless algorithms standing between me and my future mate. However, there’s a new middleman to contend with, one who’s just as opportunistic and exploitative as the dating app matchmakers. He’s on your TV, and he’s asking for $19 a month, only 63 cents a day!

Reclaiming Charity tells the story of two people seeking personal redemption through charitable contribution. One goes about it in the way the TV ads dictate; the other blazes his own trail. Two different methods. Two different outcomes. You decide which path feels right to you.

 

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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You can find “Reclaiming Charity” on the “about” page of my website: www.trunksart.com. 

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

 

A Brief Review of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

 

Nampa, Idaho - July 5, 2026 - I thought I could do it—reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) after having read John Steinbeck’s gut-wrenching The Grapes of Wrath (1939) only months earlier. I limped through the first half of Sinclair’s seminal novel, a fictional story exposing the horrific conditions of the Chicago meatpacking industry, before calling it quits, saying, “Enough already—I can’t take it!” Apparently, I have no stomach when it comes to the plight of the innocent, especially if the story is based on facts gathered firsthand by the author.

The two books are eerily similar, each centered on an uprooted, multigenerational family in distress as they struggle for economic security and independence in unfamiliar and hostile environments. Whereas Steinbeck’s Joad family faces poverty, prejudice, and cruelty as migrant farmworkers in 1930s-central California, Sinclair’s Rudkus family is subjected to even worse indignities as workers in the stockyard district in early 20th-century Chicago. Shockingly, it took a muckraking exposé like The Jungle to force the government’s hand. The book’s release spurred the creation of the Meat Inspection Act, authorizing USDA oversight of the meatpacking industry, and the Pure Food and Drug Act, which ultimately gave rise to the FDA. In other words, the heartless owners of these hellish enterprises had to be publicly shamed before lifting a finger to ensure the safety of their employees and those who consumed their products. How disgusting.

However, most disturbingly, 30 years later, it’s “déjà vu all over again.” This time, it was Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath that uncovered the horrendous working conditions and slave wages of the agricultural workers on large California farms, triggering congressional investigations and, ultimately, migrant worker rights and protections. At this point, it’s difficult for me to believe that any change has taken place—at least the kind of change that doesn’t separate a human being from basic needs and dignity. I believe America does a terrific job of making it look like real change has taken place when in truth it’s a game packed with appeasement and lies. What’s coming next—a book exposing the exploitation of Amazon workers in its fulfillment centers? A tell-all account of how Uber and DoorDash executives capitalize on the desperation of their drivers? To me, the mantra never changes in this country: corporate greed over human need.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

NEW SHORT STORY: "First Day (of Enlightenment)" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art) is a 29-page novella about budding awareness.

 

Nampa, Idaho - June 27, 2026 - When I first heard the term “enlightenment,” I assumed it was merely a grandiose label for an alcohol- or drug-induced euphoria given by societal rejects who couldn’t keep up with the demands of mainstream living. Then, after learning more about what it means to be enlightened, I figured this level of spiritual insight was reserved for special people, like monks, swamis, and gurus, who are willing to live under extreme measures and look a certain way to achieve such lofty awareness. I imagined an old man with a long, white beard, sitting in the lotus position on a mountaintop, looking oddly like Kwai Chang Caine’s master from the 1970s television series “Kung Fu.” Now, after having taken the path to enlightenment for myself, I realize that the journey is not only a rite of passage, but it’s also open to anyone (at any age) should they possess the desire and courage to do so.

I came up with the idea to write “First Day (of Enlightenment)” after reading Hermann Hesse’s novel, Demian (1919), a coming-of-age story that follows ten-year-old Emil Sinclair from his elementary school days to his first year of university studies. As he transitions from childhood to adolescence, Sinclair meets and befriends another boy, Max Demian, who turns out to be his fated spiritual guide, turning up time and again in moments when Sinclair needs him most. It was then that I realized that the path to enlightenment can begin as soon as one enters the world without Mommy or Daddy. But that wasn’t the only revelation; I soon discovered another aspect of enlightenment—one that I had failed to capture in my book, Pillars of Society (2026), an allegorical tale of personal transformation revealing the true costs of enlightenment: that society is more than just an amalgam of evil-inspired abominations.

“First Day,” like Pillars, offers an emblematic premise disclosing the harsh realities and social costs of budding awareness; however, it also sheds light on the elusive upside of enlightenment—that moments of splendor do exist if one knows where to look. In “First Day,” a fictional family dinner frames a deeper philosophical discussion on the true nature of enlightenment—a strikingly different setting than the make-believe caterpillar colony in Pillars. “First Day” opens in its first section with a young mother anxiously waiting for her five-year-old son, Christian, to return home from his first day in kindergarten. In the second section, you’ll learn why Christian stepped off the bus in tears, and by the end of the third and fourth sections, you’ll come to understand why he has trouble relating to the outside world.

Over the last three sections, where the family of five is gathered for dinner around the kitchen table, the story’s emphasis shifts from Christian’s inner world to his parents, who use their son’s first-day-of-school experience as fodder to launch into a lecture about the path to enlightenment. Working together like tag team wrestlers, Adam and Eve teach Christian and his two older sisters, Mary and Josephine, how enlightened people differ from the unenlightened and explain what impact abominations and splendor have on each. It’s a story that will not only ease the mind of the enlightened—those who can’t help but see that the world is governed and policed by the blackest of hearts—but it will also offer the unenlightened a chance at personal redemption—a chance to reconnect with nature, spirituality, modesty, simplicity, fellowship, and, most importantly, themselves. 

 

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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You can find “First Day (of Enlightenment)” on the “about” page of my website: www.trunksart.com. 

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Edwin P. Hoyt's "Sunk by the Bismarck" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

 

Nampa, Idaho - June 23, 2026 - I’m convinced that my interest in true stories about World War II stems from a fact-gathering gene located on my Y chromosome—somewhere between the gene that prevents me from asking for help and the one that stops me from talking about my feelings. Having read Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Patton (2014), Killing the SS (2018), and Killing the Rising Sun (2016), three exceptionally gripping books about the Second World War, I was thrilled to have found Edwin P. Hoyt’s Sunk by the Bismarck (1977) on the library shelf last week.

Hoyt’s storytelling is painstakingly detailed, offering the reader an encyclopedia-like account of Britain’s greatest warship, HMS Hood, from its initial launch in 1920 to its eventual demise, courtesy of Nazi Germany’s super-battleship, Bismarck, in the spring of 1941. Throughout the book, he rarely veers from a chronological writing style, expounding at the strategic level, reporting on ports of call, mission dates, battle outcomes, and military chain of command. When combined with his regard for pageantry, it’s obvious that Hoyt, an American writer and historian, is enamored with British Royal Navy regalia.

Unlike Bill O’Reilly’s books, I felt disconnected from the action, cloistered inside a London war room, wedged between decorated tacticians moving and repositioning miniature replicas of battleships, destroyers, and cruisers on a 100-square-foot table featuring an enormous map of Europe. If you enjoy books focused on the “art of war,” then Sunk by the Bismarck is for you. However, if you prefer “boots on the ground” action and an abundance of human-interest stories, any of Bill O’Reilly’s World War II books will be a much more engaging read.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

Free Downloads of All My Books and Essays Are Now Available on My Website!

Nampa, Idaho - June 16, 2026 - If you’re like me, you’re probably frustrated with the prevalence of exploitative paywalls. Having stated the obvious sad truth, I’m offering all of my books and essays as free PDF downloads on my website. However, if you prefer having a paperback in your hands or a compatible e-copy on your Kindle, you can still find my entire inventory on Amazon—which I’ve priced within the online retailer’s lowest acceptable range.

You can find my work on the “about” page of my website: https://www.trunksart.com/about.

 

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of John Updike's "Rabbit, Run" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

 

Nampa, Idaho - June 9, 2026 - “Gripping discomfort.” That’s how I described how I felt 10 years ago while watching a community theater’s adaptation of Elizabeth Taylor’s and Richard Burton’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). It’s the same two-word description I’d offer if asked how I felt while reading John Updike’s Rabbit, Run (1960). Here lies a tragic story in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning author masterfully reveals what calamity awaits those who succumb to mainstream indoctrination, tradition, and the expectations of others rather than follow one’s inner compass.

The story follows Harry Angstrom, a young family man, who, on a whim, recklessly decides to turn his life upside down in hopes of easing the inner turmoil of not knowing who he is or what he wants. In the process, he burdens those around him with his struggle between self and society, the pursuit of pleasure and family duty, and even between callousness and empathy. Harry wants more out of life than the humdrum existence he shares with Janice and their two-year-old son, Nelson. His natural inclination is to run away, but he soon learns that he hasn’t a destination, both literally and figuratively.

Prior to reading Rabbit, Run, I imagined my life would’ve been better had I never left my hometown. I could see myself working just up the road, mowing the lawn on Saturdays, attending church on Sundays, and raising a family with a girl I went to high school with—all to the tune of Carly Simon’s “That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be” (1971). But then again, I might’ve ended up exactly like Harry—living in quiet desperation, pining for the life I was supposed to have while destroying the lives of everyone around me.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).