No One Is Talking About This
Books | Fiction / Literary
3.5
(232)
Patricia Lockwood
FINALIST FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE & A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOKWINNER OF THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZEONE OF THE ATLANTIC’S GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS “A book that reads like a prose poem, at once sublime, profane, intimate, philosophical, witty and, eventually, deeply moving.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice “Wow. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much reading a book. What an inventive and startling writer…I’m so glad I read this. I really think this book is remarkable.” —David Sedaris From "a formidably gifted writer" (The New York Times Book Review), a book that asks: Is there life after the internet?As this urgent, genre-defying book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. She is overwhelmed by navigating the new language and etiquette of what she terms "the portal," where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts. When existential threats--from climate change and economic precariousness to the rise of an unnamed dictator and an epidemic of loneliness--begin to loom, she posts her way deeper into the portal's void. An avalanche of images, details, and references accumulate to form a landscape that is post-sense, post-irony, post-everything. "Are we in hell?" the people of the portal ask themselves. "Are we all just going to keep doing this until we die?"Suddenly, two texts from her mother pierce the fray: "Something has gone wrong," and "How soon can you get here?" As real life and its stakes collide with the increasingly absurd antics of the portal, the woman confronts a world that seems to contain both an abundance of proof that there is goodness, empathy, and justice in the universe, and a deluge of evidence to the contrary.Fragmentary and omniscient, incisive and sincere, No One Is Talking About This is at once a love letter to the endless scroll and a profound, modern meditation on love, language, and human connection from a singular voice in American literature.
Comedy
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More Details:
Author
Patricia Lockwood
Pages
224
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
2021-02-16
ISBN
0593189604 9780593189603
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"This was brilliant - funny, sharp, and then very, very moving without becoming too sentimental. Nothing else I’ve read has come close to capturing the experience of being Very Online. I do think you need some sense of not just the mechanics but the conversational flow of Twitter to fully appreciate it, although I’d be super curious to know what people who don’t have that experience think of it. "
Emily Calkins
"The format of this book fit the content so perfectly. This is my favorite thing about this book. It’s one of the most perfectly considered pieces of writing I’ve read recently."
C
CaitVD
"I thought that the idea of a woman observing and actively partaking in the workings of a portal was an interesting concept. As an observer, she watches what normal people in the world endure, however, with that comes it’s great difficulties. She is able to see the beauties in life while also having to watch the greatest horrors and sacrifices. One example of this, in the book, was the death of the child at the end of the story. The author explores the beauty in acceptance while also acknowledging the grief that never truly goes away through this part of the story. Alongside the acknowledgements of people, the author also dives into real world issues that we need to pay more attention to. One significant example of this is climate change. I felt that she really discusses the negative impacts that will be imprinted not only on society but on the future of the world itself through her writing on this."
Bella Coulter
"Recommended by Jack Edwards, but I don’t own it and I feel like it’s another one that I need to have lost someone to know about."
Zachary
"I loved the punchy vibrant style of this book. I was a bit confused at first but it kept my attention. I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator, Kristen Sieh, was spot on. I would recommend listening to the novel because, like poetry which this has the feel of, I think hearing it out loud is the best way to consume this type of content."
John Woakes
"What a strange book. A mixture of word salad and flight of ideas. I wanted to stop listening to this book constantly but I’ve never not finished a book. It’s hard to know what she is talking about at any point in part 1. Part two was at least about a baby and stuck to that story. I would not recommend. Was this supposed to be some sort of poetic adventure?"
Cody Eckelkamp
