Review: Talk Talk
Talk Talk by T.C. Boyle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I usually like to read T.C. Boyle and Talk Talk certainly has its moments, especially concerning suspense and speed. What I didn’t like were on the one hand the characters, and on the other hand the plot.
1. The characters are not very likeable. Dana is deaf and has the feeling that the whole world does not get her. She says she doesn’t care that people stare, but becomes aggressive when she cannot communicate right with other people. Granted, her character goes through some bad stuff during the novel. It still seems weird. Especially when you compare her to the bad guy, Peck Wilson, who gets similarly aggressive as her. While she lets it out verbally, mostly on her boyfriend Bridger, Wilson also uses violence. He is a very flat character, doesn’t care for other people and thinks he is in the right, no matter what he does. He doesn’t change and one can assume that he isn’t stopped either. Though there are people who he loves, as he claims, for example Natalia or his daughter Sukie, his rage and his bad attitude always come first. He tries to always play it cool as if he was Anton Chigurh from The Country of Old Men. Boyle could have given this character a little more on the way than just his rage, his selfishness and his great skills to cook.
2. The plot is often moved forward by coincidences. When Bridger and Dana try to find Wilson, they at least two times just stumble upon him, which does not satisfy me to be honest. The ending didn’t really satisfy me either, but I will not go into detail here, because I do not want to spoiler the novel.
All in all, it is a good read, but not nearly as good as other books by the same author.
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