2021 Booker Longlist - No One is Talking About This

[Paul]

That the book fails to include any No Context Hearn memes whatsoever does rather demonstrate her inability to really capture the zeitgeist.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Just caught up with Lockwood on Front Row. Yes another which reflects the book. She talks about the first part of the novel being a series of bite size bonbons and so as Cindy says below was this programme. It was only a 15 minute slot or so with I think between the presenter and two readers maybe 20 questions. Anuk A and Richard Powers could I think have talked for 15 minutes on one question.

[Paul]

I wonder if they struggled to find a third panelist who wasn't going to ask questions along lines of 'isn't the 2nd half a cynical attempt at emotional manipulation to justify the annoying 1st half'.

[Henk]

Paul wrote: "I wonder if they struggled to find a third panelist who wasn't going to ask questions along lines of 'isn't the 2nd half a cynical attempt at emotional manipulation to justify the annoying 1st half'."

LOL, that be a good summary

[Ellie]

I've not posted in one of these discussions before though I have been following them/finding them useful while reading some of the Booker lists this year.
I've also been listening to the Front Row episodes on catch-up and thought it was interesting how Lockwood mentioned that her niece hadn't been born yet when she was writing the first half of the book.
That made me wonder where she might have been going with the first half of the book before - whether she would have finished it, whether it would have been as successful as the actual book has been (or whether its detractors would have liked it more?). There's no way of knowing, but I am curious about the trajectory she had in mind for the first half.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Hi Ellie

Welcome to the discussions

She implied I felt that she did not really have a trajectory for the first half and that it might have never been completed

[Joy D]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "She talks about the first part of the novel being a series of bite size bonbons..."

This is the part that really annoyed me. I did feel it was redeemed by showing how "real life" pulls people out of the internet world and back into the real world of what is truly important in life (IMO). Obviously, I am not a fan of internet chit-chat and memes.

[Joy D]

I do recognize the irony in the above comment. I have gotten off all social media except GR, which I cannot bring myself to give up. I feel like "these are my people." (Not to derail the conversation - just an observation.)

[WndyJW]

I didn’t know Lockwood started that book before her niece was born. That throws the book into a different light.
I need to reread it, but wasn’t the first half a light-hearted critique of the “portal” and the second half a more personal account of her relationship to social media after she and her family experienced a real trauma?
I didn’t feel emotionally manipulated by the second half, I wasn’t particularly moved it by it either, other than recognizing that it was a sad situation. I don’t think Lockwood tried to garner sympathy, she just told us what happened and how she felt about it.

I wish someone had asked her what she had planned.