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frasersimons 's review for:
Topics of Conversation
by Miranda Popkey
I have been putting this off for a long time because so many reviews are so negative. Weirdly, maybe that just opened me up to be surprised.
Topics of Conversations reminds me of how Sally Rooney conversations in her books. There’s a brutal honest quality that feels like it’s impossible not to form intimacy. The reviews I’d read often say that the characters aren’t “likable”, which I find to be strange and mostly beside the point and somewhat funny. After all, these are snapshots of people sharing, whether they’re aware of it or not, the kernels that make up who they are, when so often all we get is popcorn. For someone to share their innermost thoughts about feeling they’re a monster or have internalized misogyny or feel something is wrong or right with them, and then for the reader to be like, ‘well that’s all well and good but I don’t “like” you now’ is just incredible to me really.
Everyone has shame and worries that feel easier to convey to complete strangers or exacting moments when you’re disarmed. It seems incredible to me that a book like this—essentially an empathy exercise—puts off so many people.
True, I tried the audiobook and the narrator is unbelievable and impeccable. I’ve read the text itself is obtuse and somewhat experimental. Some people thought it sounds like spoken word and I can very much confirm when heard it is incredible; so there’s that. But it also makes sense to me that the prose would be like that. A woman who thinks she’s too smart for her own good and is empirically well educated herself, writing in such a way seems like a style-matching theme.
I also felt like some of the subject matter might be accessible to some generations more than others too, in terms of communication gaps and the overall contextualization felt one part scandalous and one part confessional, which really worked for me. I think it’s provocative for good reason and an interesting way to do a MeToo book. Which, again, feels wild that people's reactions that it’s pretentious and unlikable. Had the text itself been more accessible for the average reader, it might make a decent litmus test?
Topics of Conversations reminds me of how Sally Rooney conversations in her books. There’s a brutal honest quality that feels like it’s impossible not to form intimacy. The reviews I’d read often say that the characters aren’t “likable”, which I find to be strange and mostly beside the point and somewhat funny. After all, these are snapshots of people sharing, whether they’re aware of it or not, the kernels that make up who they are, when so often all we get is popcorn. For someone to share their innermost thoughts about feeling they’re a monster or have internalized misogyny or feel something is wrong or right with them, and then for the reader to be like, ‘well that’s all well and good but I don’t “like” you now’ is just incredible to me really.
Everyone has shame and worries that feel easier to convey to complete strangers or exacting moments when you’re disarmed. It seems incredible to me that a book like this—essentially an empathy exercise—puts off so many people.
True, I tried the audiobook and the narrator is unbelievable and impeccable. I’ve read the text itself is obtuse and somewhat experimental. Some people thought it sounds like spoken word and I can very much confirm when heard it is incredible; so there’s that. But it also makes sense to me that the prose would be like that. A woman who thinks she’s too smart for her own good and is empirically well educated herself, writing in such a way seems like a style-matching theme.
I also felt like some of the subject matter might be accessible to some generations more than others too, in terms of communication gaps and the overall contextualization felt one part scandalous and one part confessional, which really worked for me. I think it’s provocative for good reason and an interesting way to do a MeToo book. Which, again, feels wild that people's reactions that it’s pretentious and unlikable. Had the text itself been more accessible for the average reader, it might make a decent litmus test?