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A review by sidharthvardhan
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
4.0
"Our mothers could not stop using horny emojis. They used the winking one with its tongue out on our birthdays, they sent us long rows of the spurting three droplets when it rained. We had told them a thousand times, but they never listened—as long as they lived and loved us, as long as they had split themselves open to have us, they would send us the peach in peach season.
NEVER SEND ME THE EGGPLANT AGAIN, MOM! she texted. I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU’RE COOKING FOR DINNER!"
"Previously these communities were imposed on us, along with their mental weather. Now we chose them—or believed that we did. A person might join a site to look at pictures of her nephew and five years later believe in a flat earth."
The first half of this book tries to encompass the modern life in so fat as it involves excessive use of internet and social media. The continuous change in very universe we move around in - from real life to internet chats to some article to some article; not to mention the short attention span issues it causes. Its as well the book is written in vignettes. There is something to be said about how little literature has, as yet, explored the impact of literature on how we perceive reality.
"Previously these communities were imposed on us, along with their mental weather. Now we chose them—or believed that we did. A person might join a site to look at pictures of her nephew and five years later believe in a flat earth"
"Every day we were seeing new evidence that suggested it was the portal that had allowed the dictator to rise to power. This was humiliating. It would be like discovering that the Vietnam War was secretly caused by ham radios, or that Napoleon was operating exclusively on the advice of a parrot named Brian."
The author touches a number of these elements of internet life - trends, gifs, emojis, images etc. While the theme is original enough in among my personal reading experience; the treatment it received was somewhat amateurish except for a few brilliant moments. The vignettes start like a random collection and it is only slowly that a story arc appears - this was very well done I think.
The second theme - caring after a dying baby and dealing with its death.
*
"Lol, her little sister texted. Think if your body changes 1-2 degrees . . . it’s called a fever and you can die if you have one for a week. Think if the ocean has a fever for years . . . Lol."
NEVER SEND ME THE EGGPLANT AGAIN, MOM! she texted. I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU’RE COOKING FOR DINNER!"
"Previously these communities were imposed on us, along with their mental weather. Now we chose them—or believed that we did. A person might join a site to look at pictures of her nephew and five years later believe in a flat earth."
The first half of this book tries to encompass the modern life in so fat as it involves excessive use of internet and social media. The continuous change in very universe we move around in - from real life to internet chats to some article to some article; not to mention the short attention span issues it causes. Its as well the book is written in vignettes. There is something to be said about how little literature has, as yet, explored the impact of literature on how we perceive reality.
"Previously these communities were imposed on us, along with their mental weather. Now we chose them—or believed that we did. A person might join a site to look at pictures of her nephew and five years later believe in a flat earth"
"Every day we were seeing new evidence that suggested it was the portal that had allowed the dictator to rise to power. This was humiliating. It would be like discovering that the Vietnam War was secretly caused by ham radios, or that Napoleon was operating exclusively on the advice of a parrot named Brian."
The author touches a number of these elements of internet life - trends, gifs, emojis, images etc. While the theme is original enough in among my personal reading experience; the treatment it received was somewhat amateurish except for a few brilliant moments. The vignettes start like a random collection and it is only slowly that a story arc appears - this was very well done I think.
The second theme - caring after a dying baby and dealing with its death.
*
"Lol, her little sister texted. Think if your body changes 1-2 degrees . . . it’s called a fever and you can die if you have one for a week. Think if the ocean has a fever for years . . . Lol."