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Topics of Conversation

Miranda Popkey (Goodreads Author)

2.96 · Rating details · 1,108 ratings · 246 reviews

For readers of Rachel Cusk, Lydia Davis, and Jenny Offill--a compact tour de force about sex, violence, and self-loathing from a ferociously talented new voice in fiction

Miranda Popkey's first novel is about desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, guilt--written in language that sizzles with intelligence and eroticism. The novel is ...more

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Hardcover, 224 pages

Published January 7th 2020 by Knopf Publishing Group

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· 1,108 ratings · 246 reviews

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Jan 09, 2020 Dita rated it it was ok

Shelves: botm

I've seen this book described as "gorgeous", "poignant" and "important".

Maybe I'm not as smart or as deep as these readers but maybe, just maybe, I caught something they didn't. It felt to me that it was far more important for the author to be perceived this way than it was to truly write this way.

You know how sometimes when you are watching a movie you are pulled out of it completely by the acting? It's heavy-handed in a way that makes you think, "Settle down"? That was this, I was too aware of ...more

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Jan 02, 2020 Book of the Month added it

Why I love it
by Cristina Arreola

Topics of Conversation is my worst nightmare come true: a book in which my darkest, most shameful, most secret thoughts are laid bare on the page. The title of this brisk, slim novel hints at its atypical structure—in lieu of a conventional plot, this novel takes us through twenty disparate years of the unnamed narrator’s life.

Each chapter of this debut is a different conversation taking place during the unnamed narrator’s life, from college years to newlywed ...more

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Nov 19, 2019 Paris (parisperusing) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, reads-for-understanding, unputdownable-books, books-that-broke-my-effing-heart, favorite-books, 2020, reads-for-relief, publisher-sent, debuts

“There is, below the surface of every conversation in which intimacies are shared, an erotic current. Sometimes this current is so hot it all but boils and other times it’s barely lukewarm, hardly noticeable, but always the current is present, if only you plunge your hands in just an inch or two farther down in the water. This is regardless of the gender of the people involved, of their sexual orientations. This is the natural outcome of disclosure, for to disclose is to reveal, to bring out “There is, below the surface of every conversation in which intimacies are shared, an erotic current. Sometimes this current is so hot it all but boils and other times it’s barely lukewarm, hardly noticeable, but always the current is present, if only you plunge your hands in just an inch or two farther down in the water. This is regardless of the gender of the people involved, of their sexual orientations. This is the natural outcome of disclosure, for to disclose is to reveal, to bring out into the open what was previously hidden. And that unwrapping, that denuding, is always, inevitably sensual.” — Topics of Conversation, Miranda Popkey

Miranda Popkey's debut novel Topics of Conversation poignantly articulates just how lonesome the coming-of-age journey can be for a woman. The story starts with the introduction of an unnamed female speaker who, across 20 years, outlines her existential quest to marriage, divorce, and motherhood through an expedition of heart-to-hearts with people she encounters along the way. Each chapter is a new episode of her experience, landmarked by place and time and discussion, and as Popkey’s roaming narrator exits one life, she enters another, rendering the reader a spectator to the heart-stabbing epiphanies that call her back down to earth.

In Italy, she offers an ear to her friend’s mother as she ashes away the veil of her unhappy marriage and Ann Arbor imperils the terrifying ease by which attractive white men become predators overnight. Though it is Los Angeles, the bedrock for the book, that unlocks the myth of true love as something rehearsed, of intimacy as illusion, and where our speaker’s self-medicated slip into melancholia begins. Depression becomes the safe stupor to which she absconds after squandering her marriage, but it is the way shame helms her poignant reawakening that sets Popkey ahead of her class as one of the most perceptive voices to strike the page.

With Topics of Conversation, Popkey weaves a gossamer of light and conviction for any woman lost in the throes of shame and uncertainty. I took this book with me everywhere. Each chapter has been inked, dogeared, coffee-stained; all signs of real love. There were so many bits in this story I know others will find as fascinating as I had: the woman recounting Norman Mailer’s abuse of his wife; the one-night affair our heroine spends with the sophisticated sadist in that San Francisco hotel; the union of mothers pouring with testimonies of moments that culminated in the left turn of their lives. What’s more to admire about Popkey’s way with style is the colloquial cadence she uses to pace her prose, peppering the narrative with pauses and ruminations without sparing that acerbic sincerity we millennials hate to love.

Topics of Conversation is an unputdownable anthem about the pains of self-discovery, of facing the fear of one’s reflection, and the embarrassment of laying claim to unspeakable desires. Halle Butler and Catherine Lacey lovers, this one is for you.

(Thanks, Knopf friends, for sending me Popkey's debut before it releases in January.)

If you liked my review, feel free to follow me @parisperusing on Instagram. ...more

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Jan 15, 2020 Larry H rated it it was ok

Miranda Popkey's Topics of Conversation is a novel of commentary on issues about gender, sex, and violence, framed as conversations.

I’m going to call this review a #maybeitsmenotyou review. I read a lot, as many of you know, and I feel like I “get” themes and issues and situations even if I can’t personally identify with them. But every so often a book comes along and it doesn’t work for me and I wonder if maybe it’s because I can’t identify with the characters or subject matter.

I’m going to ...more

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Dec 07, 2019 Fatma rated it liked it

Shelves: arcs, 2020-releases

Thank you to Random House for providing me with an eARC of this via Edelweiss!

Topics of Conversation is another in a string of books I've come across lately that center on and explore what I'm going to call the problematic woman. The problematic woman is not problematic because she is Bad—whatever that means—but because she is "full of problems or difficulties." By "problematic," here, I mean women who feel too much or too little, are too passive or too foolhardy, judge their decisions too ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Angela rated it did not like it

I found this book to be pretentious and disengaging. Aside from the fact that none of the characters were likable, the book itself is written in primarily run-on sentences. If I wanted to read a Faulkner book, I would have and would have enjoyed it more, because Faulkner tells stories. I cannot for the life of me figure out why so many people are A) liking this book or B) saying they couldn't put it down. I found it very easy to put down actually. I wanted to throw it across the room.

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Dec 01, 2019 The Nerd Daily rated it it was amazing

Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by Beth Mowbray

Reading the synopsis alone for Topics of Conversation evokes a powerful set of emotions. Take a look: “Miranda Popkey writes of desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, and guilt … composed almost exclusively of conversations between women—the stories they tell each other, and the stories they tell themselves, about shame and love, infidelity and self-sabotage …” Stunning, right?

This novel opens with Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by Beth Mowbray

Reading the synopsis alone for Topics of Conversation evokes a powerful set of emotions. Take a look: “Miranda Popkey writes of desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, and guilt … composed almost exclusively of conversations between women—the stories they tell each other, and the stories they tell themselves, about shame and love, infidelity and self-sabotage …” Stunning, right?

This novel opens with an unnamed female narrator in Italy. The year is 2000, she has just completed her undergraduate program in English and after the summer, she will begin a graduate program studying the same. In the meantime, however, she enjoys reading the journals of Sylvia Plath and discussing affairs with older professors alongside the mother of the children she babysits. If that doesn’t set a mood, then what does?

Popkey’s story then unfolds across two decades, each chapter a different time and place, a different life experience, a different conversation. Throughout these scenes, the narrator winds her way through life in a way which rings true to the female experience while also commenting on the inherent struggles. She goes to graduate school, moving out into the world in an attempt to define her life beyond. She navigates a marriage which turns into a sense of being trapped, feeling lost in her own life. She shares friendships that come and go, infatuations with the lives of others. And she attempts to bond with her mother, as well as with other mothers, while still desperately trying to maintain her own sense of self. Or even figure out what that might be.

Topics of Conversation is not just about these vignettes, though—it is also about the type of people who live within them. Many themes thread their way throughout and identity is arguably the foundation of this text. Popkey deftly explores the way women learn to “be” in the world. The way expectations are both overtly and subtly modelled by others. The way one blindly picks up on these influences and, in turn, models them in their own life, denies them, or fights against them.

Popkey also speaks broadly to patterns of intimacy and control in romantic and sexual relationships. Most strikingly on display are the traditional power dynamics and ways in which men attempt to “keep” their women: through jealousy, envy, fathering them, promising them the world, and retracting such promises. She exposes the masculine desire for control which springs not from their power, but from the lack thereof. She confronts the standard constructs of women being raised to believe they shouldn’t desire or enjoy sex. And what it means, how others react, if they do. The concept of women being judged with a double-standard, judged for doing the same things men have always done, is not new after all.

What is perhaps most interesting, though, is how Popkey then turns this idea on its head and speaks to that which often goes unspoken: The uncontrollable desire to be controlled. The relief of not having to make decisions for oneself. And the guilt, the shame, in having such desires. The reader is exposed to the results of both accepting and challenging the traditional power dynamic. How self-esteem (or the lack thereof) and the innate desire for approval drive one’s actions and choices. The narrator very directly describes herself as a “monster”—she feels anger and disgust toward herself, feels unlovable. In many ways this connects back to the issue of control, as she takes comfort in being told what to do, does not easily embrace kindness, and often does not appear comfortable with being treated well.

Throughout the novel the narrator always appears to be thinking of the “better” story, imagining how she might make her life more exciting. Feeling like she is missing something, wanting more. Maybe the narrator would have made different choices, in hindsight, as many would. It may be that she regrets the many points where she could have done something different, but did not. Perhaps this comes from a discomfort in our society with women actually expressing what they want. The same rules do not necessarily apply, however, within same sex relationships and Popkey also explores this intimacy. Not a sexual intimacy, although there is an underlying current of the erotic in some of these platonic relationships, but rather the intimacy created by sharing secrets, building a bond, and understanding one another through shared experiences.

The honesty and depth of the narrator’s story speaks broadly to the female experience, particularly expected gender roles and preconceived notions of sex and relationships. With a candor seldom seen, Topics of Conversation explores how these “norms” are internalized and challenges them in ways both subtle and overt, serious and exaggerated. Miranda Popkey has a voice that is witty and biting—you won’t want to miss this debut. It may just be one of my favourite releases for 2020! ...more

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Nov 11, 2019 Jonathan rated it it was amazing

Remember the name Miranda Popkey right now. Her debut book “topics of conversation” comes out in January and it is one you will not want to miss. I was reminded of Sally Rooney and Melissa Broder but a little more intellectual and grown up. Not taking away from either of those two women and their ability to write a great novel that I enjoy but Popkey is the real deal. Smart, innovative, and brutally honest about tough subjects. Mainly focused on the normalization of women’s sexuality and how ...more

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Nov 10, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, netgalley

[Still going to re-read this closer to publication, but I want to get some initial thoughts up before the year is out!]

I can see this being one of the big reads of 2020 - Miranda Popkey's novel stands up on its own merits, but for purposes of comparison I'd agree with the Goodreads blurb which recommends it for readers of Rachel Cusk and Jenny Offill, though at times I was reminded of the clarity in Sally Rooney's writing as well.

The story follows an unnamed woman over the course of 15 years ...more

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Jan 12, 2020 Darryl Suite rated it it was amazing

Even though I'm feeling sick, I had to finish this book tonight. This novel did it for me. There was something compulsive and addictive about it; I felt like I had to devour it. Some of the themes horrified me, stimulated me, enraptured me; made me wince or nod my head begrudgingly while thinking my, my, myyyy. This book shouldn't have worked for me, but it did, it really did. I'm definitely going to write a full review once I stop feeling feverish (from the sickness and/or maybe even from my ...more

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Jan 03, 2020 Roemer rated it it was ok

Ugh. I so wanted to love this one. And maybe it’s just above me. But I was truly bored to tears. I made myself push through and finish since it’s only 202 pages but ugh. The writing especially in the first story was so hard to focus on as it was one long, backtracking, run-on sentence after another. A lot of people clearly enjoyed this, but it was not for me.

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Jan 13, 2020 Toni Erickson rated it did not like it

I’m sorry, but I can’t stand this book. Hate to say that, but it’s the cold truth. DNF at 108. I wanted to like it so bad, but I just can’t. I don’t think I enjoyed any part of it, and the best description I can give is: it sucks.

For starters, I hate the structure. It’s filled with run-on sentences and odd grammar. I mean, I get it (I think); it’s written like you were talking to yourself in your head, or at least that’s how I’m interpreting it. But it’s not adding anything to the story. It’s I’m sorry, but I can’t stand this book. Hate to say that, but it’s the cold truth. DNF at 108. I wanted to like it so bad, but I just can’t. I don’t think I enjoyed any part of it, and the best description I can give is: it sucks.

For starters, I hate the structure. It’s filled with run-on sentences and odd grammar. I mean, I get it (I think); it’s written like you were talking to yourself in your head, or at least that’s how I’m interpreting it. But it’s not adding anything to the story. It’s not artistic, it’s annoying. If it was written in proper grammar, it wouldn’t have ruined the intended effect. It probably would have made the book actually make more sense. Not for me, not with this subject matter.

Also, maybe I’ve met far too many trash people in my life, but I wasn’t overly shocked at any of the brutal honesty or so-called intimacy in this book. I will say: there was one chapter, one scene, where the narrator is so brutally honest with another man in a hotel room, and that was the only part I thought was actually good. I think it was a self awareness that would resonate with a lot of people in that situation. Don’t want to reveal anything about it, but you’d know it when you got to it. However, don’t read this book just for that. Maybe the good stuff was closer to the end, but if I read half your book and I’m miserable, you’ve lost your chance. I didn’t think it was profound or poignant or any other pretentious descriptor. It’s a woman who’s met some other men and women, some of them trash, some a mess. Now I enjoy a good mess in my reading sometimes but with this book, I was like please get it together. Your mess is not cute.

I was just bored reading this. Bored and disappointed. I didn’t find the writing style or subject matter impressive or highly thoughtful at all. I found myself thinking I couldn’t wait for this reading experience to be over, clearly not enjoying myself, so I just put it down. Maybe I don’t get it, maybe I’m not appreciating it, call it what you will, but it’s probably one of the worst books I’ve ever read. ...more

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Jan 17, 2020 Mel rated it really liked it

Wow, this book presents some serious Rachel Cusk and Ali Smith vibes. Cusk and Smith are among my favorite female writers so it was hard not to inhale Popkey's prose. The surprise while reading was how though the narrator (is she unnamed?? I can't remember a name) remains the same throughout and her personal life is sometimes vaguely and sometimes specifically alluded to, the story isn't really hers. The story lies in the interaction and the players she's surrounded by changes in each chapter, ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Jaclyn (sixminutesforme) rated it really liked it

Following a woman in a series of conversations across her adult life, the parts of this novel felt like dipping in and out of interconnected short stories. That said, the strength for me was in the component parts, rather than an overall takeaway - each conversation is a mesmerizing, topical and emotively driven interlude into snippets of the narrator’s life and those of the women she speaks with. They touched on themes of desire in many of its manifestations (the most effectively written being ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 Stephani rated it did not like it

Sooo disappointed in Book of the Month (BOTM).

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Nov 13, 2019 Beth M. rated it it was amazing

When I first read the synopsis for Topics of Conversation, it took me aback. “Miranda Popkey writes of desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, and guilt ... composed almost exclusively of conversations between women - the stories they tell each other, and the stories they tell themselves, about shame and love, infidelity and self-sabotage ...” Stunning right?

Reading this book was just the experience I hoped it would be. Popkey’s story unfolds across two ...more

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Jan 14, 2020 Jessica Sullivan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, 2020-read, 5-stars

“That of course life is random, a series of coincidences, etc., but that to live you must attempt to make sense of it, and that’s what narrative’s for.”

Inject this book directly into my veins, please. Reading this reminded me of reading Call Me By Your Name. While this is a completely different narrative, it is similarly sensual and self-conscious and intellectually edifying. It is essentially a series of conversations that one woman has with people over the years as she gradually upends her ...more

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Jan 02, 2020 Ylenia rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned-read, books-for-review, 2020-reads

Happy pub-week to Popkey's debut novel - Topics of Conversation.

Divided in chapters that felt more like interconnected short stories, this book was told mainly in conversations. The author made some really interesting choices, like leaving the narrator unnamed, which helped to set the mood.
The dialogues felt incredibly natural; I almost felt like I was in the same room with these characters.

The topics of conversation - unhappy love stories, infidelity, violence - couldn't be more apt to my ...more

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Jan 12, 2020 tori ✨ rated it it was ok

For those who like to listen to unlikeable white women wax poetic about their woes. I am not one of those people. Maybe you are though.

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Jan 11, 2020 Kimberly rated it did not like it

Shelves: book-of-the-month-club-selections

This book bored me to tears. It really has no plot-it’s just a series of short stories taken from an unnamed narrator’s life, like a bunch of snapshots. The writing style wasn’t for me. At least it only took me an hour or so to read.

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Jan 13, 2020 Madison added it

y’all really tried it with hyping this book up...

this book has... so many words... without really saying anything at all. it’s like, a movie that a first year male film student raves about and then you watch it and you’re like, the fuck? so he goes in detail regurgitating bullshit to you and then you die of boredom.

it wasn’t until Los Angeles, 2012 that I really started getting annoyed and realized that people just don’t talk like this!! every single character, or “topic of conversation”, is ...more

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Jan 11, 2020 Jan Agaton rated it it was ok

Ugh, I REALLY wanted to like this book more than I did. I was intrigued by the synopsis and reviews saying it's filled with an unnamed woman's honest, intimate thoughts and secrets, and it was exactly that, but the writing style just didn't do it for me. It took a lot of getting used to because of the constant run-on sentences. I understand the author's intention was to make it sound as close to how people talk in casual conversations as possible, but it just got hard to read at some points. ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 Naomi (3starsandup) rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2020

"The different between jealousy and envy, do you know it? She did not wait to see if I would sake or nod my head. Envy is wanting to acquire the thing you do not have. Jealousy is wanting to keep the thing you do."

SYNOPSIS | This novel explores a 20 year period in the life of an unnamed narrator and is composed almost exclusively of conversations that occurred between themselves and other women. As the title suggests, there are many topics of conversation.

MY THOUGHTS | I picked this up because ...more

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Jan 10, 2020 Alex Bente rated it it was ok

This was not my favorite. The stream of consciousness writing was hard to read and I often had to go back and re-read segments to tell which “she“ she was talking about. Additionally, the narrator’s self-awareness was confusing, and it was hard to determine if she was a reliable or an unreliable narrator. Despite this, and the fact that I was not entirely captivated, I was desperate to find out who she was. Which I guess, indicates that the book was interesting. I’m not sure I ever found out, ...more

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Jan 09, 2020 Emily Kehoe rated it it was ok

I was really hoping this would be an insight to conversations women have in varying stages of life. Although that was the main premise, I found the style of writing to be confusing and disengaging, and the characters not relatable.

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Dec 27, 2019 Afton Montgomery added it

This small but mighty debut from Miranda Popkey is told over the course of 20 years in the conversations that one unnamed narrator has. Mostly, these are conversations amongst women-- a group of mothers in Fresnogetting wine drunk while their babies sleepin the next room,divulging how they wound up single and pregnant; a family trip to Italy that falls into a sensual interaction between the narrator and her friend's mother; a near-evil back and forth between the narrator and a friend who treats ...more

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Jan 12, 2020 Avery rated it it was ok

Shelves: female-authors, literary-fiction

2.5 stars

This was a frustrating read to say the least. More often than not a novel that is described in the synopsis as being about "...desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, guilt--written in language that sizzles with intelligence and eroticism," can't deliver on those promises so I shouldn't be surprised. Not that the novel doesn't touch on these things, it does, but I found the voice of the narrator like another reviewer states "heavy handed". Reading it 2.5 stars

This was a frustrating read to say the least. More often than not a novel that is described in the synopsis as being about "...desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, guilt--written in language that sizzles with intelligence and eroticism," can't deliver on those promises so I shouldn't be surprised. Not that the novel doesn't touch on these things, it does, but I found the voice of the narrator like another reviewer states "heavy handed". Reading it had me rolling my eyes at certain points knowing Popkey was probably patting herself on the back thinking she as writing something particularly deep for profound. She says want she wants to say through the narrator clearly, but with no natural feeling. The conversations had with the other women also address these issues but in much more interesting ways and as a result become more more interesting than our narrator.

The writing style and the lack of a traditional narrative might turn off some readers. I'll admit that when I first started it, I was taken aback and it took time to get used to. The style is deliberate but it hindered my reading experience at times. It's different and I can appreciate that and the subtle shifts in tone and clarity that Popkey makes in how the narrator thinks and views herself and the relationships to others and the world reflects how she ages as the novel progresses. A sign of real talent in my opinion. The book also follows a disjointed time line with gaps of years to months between events. There is a narrative, but its hidden in these conversations that the narrator is having at varies times and places with only some background provided to explain that how and why she ended up their. It's different from anything I've read before and I actually enjoyed this creative choice.

What I enjoyed most was how well written the women are. They are fascinating, interesting, dynamic characters. They are actual human being and not just breasts, madonnas, or whores. And I don't mean in the typical bare minimum: the women have interests and hobbies and the author doesn't describe every woman's breasts in detail when they meet. These are at times kind and caring in the ways we think "good" women are, but they are also mean, selfish, thoughtless and unkind. They do things that have you "how could you?" but at the same time, because we live in this world and see the ways in which the world shapes women, we understand why these women behave the way they do and make the choices they make. It felt like encountering women like me and women I actually know.

For that I seem to have enjoyed I come away find it over just okay. Nothing special and nothing I would recommend if anyone I know asked me about it. It didn’t hit the mark for me and is a nice reminder as to why I don’t pick up new releases until at least a year has passed and the hype has settled down. I'm curious to see who, if anyone, will be talking about this book come November and December. ...more

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Jan 15, 2020 Vanya rated it really liked it

Shelves: own

Miranda Popkey’s Topics of Conversation traverses 17 years in the life of its unnamed female narrator, whom we piece together through the conversations that occur between her and other women throughout the book. These exchanges probe and prod desire, motherhood, lies, ambition, infidelity, sexuality—the process of divulging ultimately evoking intimacy. The narrator realizes the import of such shared moments, claiming that the activity of disclosure carries an erotic current. It is in reflections Miranda Popkey’s Topics of Conversation traverses 17 years in the life of its unnamed female narrator, whom we piece together through the conversations that occur between her and other women throughout the book. These exchanges probe and prod desire, motherhood, lies, ambition, infidelity, sexuality—the process of divulging ultimately evoking intimacy. The narrator realizes the import of such shared moments, claiming that the activity of disclosure carries an erotic current. It is in reflections like these where Popkey’s brilliance shines through.

The writer surrenders the conventional plot in favour of snippets taken from different stages in the heroine’s life, from working as a 21-year-old nanny to a pair of twins in Italy to marrying a devoted and kind man to becoming a single mother battling alcoholism. The narrative courses like a conversation in real time—impeded with pauses, sentences that halfway stray to engender another thought, which may or may not end abruptly.

From the fragments that are offered, it initially seems as if Popkey’s intent is to unearth the core of her narrator’s humanity. But she repeatedly thwarts the reader’s effort to arrive at any cogent trajectory. At one point, the narrator muses, “Everything that had ever happened could never be integrated into something coherent.” This is apropos to not only the reality of Popkey’s heroine but also literally, to the text. We move through fluid spaces of brief epiphanies, glimpses into the women’s mind that are long enough to stimulate thought but short enough to subvert any act of summarization.

TOC has foiled my many attempts to come up with its synopsis. Nevertheless, it’s vital to talk about some of the questions that Popkey raises in the book like how does a woman explain the irresistible urge to disrupt traditional family structure to self-actualise, does female pain stand a chance at articulation if the woman in question is promiscuous and non-white, is a female still afforded the liberty to call herself a feminist if she fluctuates between the need for agency and the desire to be controlled. It’s not a book for those seeking comfortable answers, it’s for those who don’t mind jolts to their long-standing perceptions about individuals and the society. ...more

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Jan 03, 2020 Lynn Fraser rated it liked it · review of another edition

This novel reads like a series of short stories connected by narrator and theme - women, their sexuality and their relationships with men. No one comes out of it well. Everyone and the world is broken. The book is clever and well written. But... (you could hear that ‘but’ coming, I suspect and I feel like I should preface what follows with a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ disclaimer.) I didn’t enjoy it. I found it cold and only engaging in moments. I don’t mind not liking a character but I didn’t care ...more

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Jan 12, 2020 Tracy Miller rated it it was ok

Shelves: listened

I forget that I’m not about super interior novels where nothing happens until I’m in to one. This should be called “Topics of Monologue” though as no one converses this way. If I was goi g to read it, I should have read rather than listened.

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