By the author of the New York Times bestseller, Love Poems for Married People, and the Thurber Prize-winner Truth in Advertising comes a wry yet tenderhearted look at how one man’s public fall from grace leads him back to his family, and back to the man he used to be.It’s a story that Ted Grayson has reported time and time again in his job as a network TV anchor: the public downfall of those at … anchor: the public downfall of those at the top. He just never imagined that it would happen to him. After his profanity-laced tirade is caught on camera, his reputation and career are destroyed, leaving him without a script for the first time in years.
While American viewers may have loved and trusted Ted for decades, his family certainly didn’t: His years of constant travel and his big-screen persona have frayed all of his important relationships. At the time of his meltdown, Ted is estranged from his wife, Claire, and his adult daughter, Franny, a writer for a popular website. Franny views her father’s disgrace with curiosity and perhaps a bit of smug satisfaction, but when her boss suggests that she confront Ted in an interview, she has to decide whether to use his loss as her career gain. And for Ted, this may be a chance to take a hard look at what got him to this place, and to try to find his way back before it’s too late.
Talk to Me is a sharply observed, darkly funny, and ultimately warm story about a man who wakes up too late to the mess he’s made of his life… and about our capacity for forgiveness and empathy.
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Nuance is dead. In its place, we have judgment. Instant judgment. That’s the world we’re living in. There’s no truth. There’s no fact. There’s only what you can get to trend. And it’s only getting worse.
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I was almost one of those readers who gave up on this one but am SO glad I did not because in the end I thoroughly enjoyed its ups and downs. This is a cautionary tale that I think hits the contemporary obsession with social media on the head. A man – a mediocre husband and sub-optimal father who is also an immensely successful nightly news anchor – makes a dreadful statement about a young woman that is (of course) caught on video and instantly broadcast and rebroadcast ad infinitum via the marvels of the internet. The results are entirely predictable but no less startling for all that: the complete and total annihilation of his reputation, family, and career.
Some people will no doubt cheer at his comeuppance. He is, after all, a man who deserved one and it was a long time coming. But I did not (at least not for more than a few seconds) because I too fear the dangers of this instant-publication, instant-judgment world we seem to have stumbled into, in which foolish decisions live with us forever (or at least as forever as attention spans allow these days) because of their eternal presence in the cloud. I absolutely think people should pay for their mistakes. One of the biggest problems I think the world is currently facing is the way we seem to have stripped away vast swaths of accountability for the decisions that we make. But I don’t think that anyone anywhere is perfect and incapable of making said mistakes, and to make people pay for each and every thing they do as though it were the defining moment or element of their lives is (to me) a dangerous overreaction with far-reaching consequences. And to me, THAT is what this book is warning us about…
Ted’s journey is an incredible one, as is that of the reader who accompanies him. Kenney has a marvelous way with language. He doesn’t pull any punches – there is devastation following each and every one, whether for good or for ill, and that style made this particular story all the more resonant for me as a result. The characters are startlingly real, warts and all, and provided a melange of personalities, foibles, and surprising strengths and weaknesses when the chips were down.
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He didn’t understand that the internet was the first creature in the history of the world that could live forever.
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The internet…the world today…and the world is nothing if not the internet, Ted…it never, ever forgets. Or forgives. There is no mercy anymore Ted. Because we can see it again and again and again, as it happened. Not a story in a newspaper but that actual event. And it makes us angry. And we want you to pay…
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This was a marvelous book. It was difficult to read at times, and it took me a lot longer to read than I expected because there was so much going on both on-scene and behind-the-scenes. It is definitely one that stuck with me, and I suspect I will be pondering many of the ideas and premises for some time… A great find!
Thanks to the Penguin First to Read program for my review copy.
Talk to Me was an interesting and revealing look at the things that can affect us, especially in the modern world. I enjoyed the way this was portrayed, along with the good and the bad that is around us today. Ted is a long-time news anchorman with a wife and daughter. Over the years, he has lost a close relationship with both of them. Now, he is facing divorce with his wife and continued avoidance and anger from his daughter. And then in one moment, Ted does something that will change his life forever. What he has done is not acceptable, especially in today’s world. And because of today’s world, technology will quickly share what he has done and enable everyone to see what he has done. The characters are interesting. The story is told in a way with real details and memories that we all can relate to. I felt that one of the most important parts of this story was the look at Ted’s family and its dynamics.
A superbly crafted story of a swaggering news anchor who disgraces himself, facing shame and regret in an era when being human in public is a bloodsport. Talk to Me is moving, full of punch and sorrow — and told at the velocity of a man plummeting to earth.
This high-voltage tale about a one-percenter learning to navigate a vastly changed America will move you to reconsider what you’re ready to forgive. Timely, keenly observed and my favorite kind of funny, John Kenney’s lastest hits (superbly) home.