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A review by amberhayward
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I LOVE Patricia Lockwood’s writing. I think I said this when in reviewed Priestdaddy - you can tell she’s a poet - and here I want to say “even when she’s writing ridiculous one-line tweets like, ‘can a dog be twins?’” but it’s more like you can tell she’s a poet BECAUSE of stuff like that. She can distill things down to something like that. She’s kind of a genius.
The most perfect part of the book is towards the end, when she lists a bunch of things she wants to explain to her infant niece who is not expected to live to be a year old. I want to put the whole list in here because it’s just so evocative of LIFE but here’s a chunk: “first library card; new lipstick; a toe going numb for two months because you wore borrowed shoes to a friend’s
wedding; Thursday; October; “She’s Like the Wind” in a dentist’s office; driver’s license picture where you look like a killer; getting your bathing suit back on after you go to the bathroom”
And it’s a thinly veiled memoir so if you’ve read Priestdaddy, you’ll know all the characters which made it more affecting.
It’s a quick read that I read on an emotional visit to the house I grew up in and I cried and cried at the end one the bedroom that was my little sister’s until I moved out and she took my room.
The most perfect part of the book is towards the end, when she lists a bunch of things she wants to explain to her infant niece who is not expected to live to be a year old. I want to put the whole list in here because it’s just so evocative of LIFE but here’s a chunk: “first library card; new lipstick; a toe going numb for two months because you wore borrowed shoes to a friend’s
wedding; Thursday; October; “She’s Like the Wind” in a dentist’s office; driver’s license picture where you look like a killer; getting your bathing suit back on after you go to the bathroom”
And it’s a thinly veiled memoir so if you’ve read Priestdaddy, you’ll know all the characters which made it more affecting.
It’s a quick read that I read on an emotional visit to the house I grew up in and I cried and cried at the end one the bedroom that was my little sister’s until I moved out and she took my room.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death