Summary
It's frighteningly easy to have one's identity stolen in our culture; it's also frighteningly easy to lose it. "Talk Talk", T.C. [Boyle]'s latest novel, is a frank examination and a cautionary tale of both conditions.
"Talk Talk," Boyle tells us through [Dana Halter], "was what happened when the deaf got together ... they talked a lot, talked all the time ... Communication, the universal need. Information. Access. Escape from the prison of silence. Talk, talk, talk."Dana's never-ending series of personal and professional achievements are a way for her to obscure feelings of inferiority, of brokenness, of disability. They work for her much in the same way Bridger's professional non-achievements work to camouflage him from himself: benignly. While an unyielding sense of entitlement and an uncanny ability to bend morals, ethics and memory may at first seem more overtly harmful, those are not altogether different from accomplishment or bland submission. Each, after all, has anger at its core, and it's difficult to think of an emotion that can more quickly make even the most well-adjusted lose sight of themselves.See the full content of this document
Extract
'Talk Talk'
"Talk Talk" T.C. Boyle Viking $25.95, 340 pages
reviewed by Jennifer O'LearIt's frighteningly easy to have one's identity stolen in our culture; it's also frighteningly easy to lose it...See the full content of this document
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